i"i 




■^^^^ 






■^^. .^^''' 







A^^- ■% 





•J' 






.^->' 






u 




•n" 




0' 


c 









^{^7^ 



a^ 



With the ^^ 

13th Minnesota 

In the Philippines 

BY 

JOHN BOWE 




"Ah! when the wanderer, lonely, friendless, 
In foreign harbors shall behold 
That flag unrolled, 
*Twill be as a friendly hand 
Stretched out from his native land. 
Filling his heart with memories sweet and 
endless." 

^ Henry W, Longfellow, 






.IBRARY Jt OONGRESS 
Iwu Oopiei rfocuivco 

JUN 19 lau^ 

■/OHlf S. 



^. 



Copyrighted, 1905 

By 

JOHN BOWE 



Press of 

A. B. Farnham PTGr & Stationery Co. 

Minneapolis, Minnesota 



Dedication. 



To those comrades in the Minnesota Regiment with 
whom it was my good fortune to be associated, 
this book is respectfully dedicated by the author. 



PREFACE 



nPHIS BOOK, is written from the diary of a 
^ private soldier, who desires to commemor- 
ate the deeds of the American soldier in the 
Philippines, and who has tried to write facts as 
they were rather than smooth over and make 
more readable the harsh incidents of the soldier's 
life. It has no official sanction and is not pub- 
lished by permission of the officers of the reg^i- 
ment, but if accepted and found worthy of your 
perusal, it may show the soldier's life as it was 
and lead to a better understanding- of the life of 
''The Boys in Blue." 

THE AUTHOR. 



Table of Contents 



CHAPTER I. 
Camp Life in Minnesota 5 

CHAPTER 11. 
Camp Life in Sunny California 11 

CHAPTER III. 
Afloat on the Pacific 14 

CHAPTER IV. 
In the Country of "Queen Lil" 20 

CHAPTER V. 
From Honolulu to Parnaque 23 

CHAPTER VL 
The Seat of War 27 

CHAPTER VIL 

Capture of Manila 33 

CHAPTER VIIL 
In Old Spanish Barracks at Malate 40 

CHAPTER IX. 
On Police Duty 42 

CHAPTER X. 
Inside the Insurgent Lines 45 

CHAPTER XL 
The Untouchable Filipinos in Camp 55 

CHAPTER XIL 
Christmas Day 62 

CHAPTER XIIL 
Incidents on Police Duty 66 

CHAPTER XIV. 
A Marriage in the Orient 73 



CHAPTER XV. 
The Philippine Outbreak 77 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Relief From Police Duty 94 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Battle of Marquino 95 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
In the Reserve 103 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Midnight Attack on the Railroad 107 

CHAPTER XX. 
In the Hospital 114 

CHAPTER XXL 
Without a Field Officer 118 

CHAPTER XXII. 
On Outpost Duty 124 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
"Job's Comforters" in Camp 128 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
The Rainy Season 136 

CHAPTER XXV. 
A Short History of the Philippines 143 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
The George Washington of the Philippines, — 
Jose Rizal 160 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
Homeward Bound 164 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 
In Fair Japan 170 

CHAPTER XXIX. 
On the Ocean Again 172 

CHAPTER XXX. 
Home, Sweet Home 178 

APPENDIX 189 



With the 13th Minnesota 
in the Philippines. 



CHAPTER I. 
CAMP LIFE IN MINNESOTA. 



Minneapolis, Minn., April 2, 1898. 

The Maine lies at the hpttom of Havana Har- 
bor, and hearing that we might possibly have a 
war with Spain, I went down to the Armory, 
on Eighth street, Minneapolis, to see what the 
boys thought about the matter. Got acquaint- 
ed with Captain Diggles, of Company B, who 
declared that war was certain, and inquired 
why I did not enlist. Told him I would have 
no objection, provided the regiment went into 
active service, but would not care to enlist for 
garrison duty. 

"Well," he replied, "you think it over and 
come around tomorrow and I'll fix you out." 

I went around the next day and Corporal 
Rising grabbed me and said: 



"Captain told me about you. Come up and 
sign the roll." 

So I wrote down my John Hancock, and was 
enrolled into Company B, First Regiment, N. 
G. S. M., and was fixed — ^plenty. Was then 
put through the foot movements by energetic 
national guardsmen, and next day was taken 
to the Quartermaster's Department, and told 
to fit myself out with a uniform. A number of 
men were there separating themselves from 
their civilian clothes and choosing others from 
a miscellaneous collection of old and new uni- 
forms that were lying around. Being of a 
thrifty turn of mind I introduced myself to a 
new suit of regimentals, and thought they 
would be good enough to be killed in. They 
attracted the attention of a good looking fel- 
low, who I afterwards learned was Private 
Smaby, who had just come up from Memphis 
to join the regiment and he was telling me the 
clothes fit like the paper on the wall, when the 
Quartermaster Sergeant, "Aunty Bates," came 
along and snapped out, "There you take off 
that suit and get into one of these old ones.* 

Well, I supposed I had to obey, so I divested 
myself of the clothing, but kept my eye on it. 



Pretty soon a young man came in and Bates 
passed it over to him. As the clothes fitted 
tolerably well he kept them. I inquired the 
young man's name and found he was the Rev. 
John Dallam, a minister from Excelsior, so all 
hope of getting the suit being gone, I resur- 
rected an old suit of rags that had formerly 
belonged to Joe Stracham, and from that time 
forward I was kept busy filling them out. We 
later paid three dollars per suit for these 
clothes ; the men who got new suits got a bar- 
gain and those who did not, got it in the neck. 
We lined up in front of the Armory and 
marched down to the Milwaukee Depot, from 
there to St. Paul, where, meeting the other 
companies of the Regiment, and after being 
reviewed by Governor Clough, we marched 
out to the State Fair Grounds, or Camp Ram- 
sey. The man who marched alongside of me 
during the journey seemed to have quite a 
number of friends, for people kept calling out, 
"Hello, Jack," and "Good-bye, Jack," all along 
the route. My name was also Jack, and I had 
a friend or two also, so we were kept busy look- 
ing up and nodding at each other's friends 
whom we did not know, till we got tired, then 



we turned to and got acquainted. His name 
was Jack Newton, from Merriam Park. We 
became good friends, shared the same tent, 
drank from the same canteen, shared our joys 
and sorrows, pleasures and pains, greenbacks 
and graybacks. Even when he had the misfor- 
tune to be appointed Corporal we did not dis- 
solve partnership, and two years later when we 
were reviewed in Minneapolis by President 
McKinley, we marched side by side. At Camp 
Ramsey, we were stabled in Stall 12, Barn B, 
along with Jack Huard, so Jack took our 
photos, hung them on the wall, and wrote un- 
derneath, "The Three Jacks." 

Camp Ramsey, March 7. 
Yesterday passed the medical examination, 
and today was mustered into Company B, Thir- 
teenth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, for a 
period of two years, or during the war. Of the 
one hundred and twelve men who marched to 
Camp Ramsey and were mustered into the 
United States Service as Company B, Thir- 
teenth Minnesota, twenty-nine were from Com- 
pany B, of the First Regiment, N. G. S. M. Of 
the twenty-nine, seventeen were commissioned 



or non-commissioned officers, and twelve were 
private soldiers, the balance of the company, 
eighty-five men, all private soldiers, were vol- 
unteers. 

The boys raided the "blind pig" at the end 
of the street car line last night. Grabbed an 
armful of bottles and ran away and hid them in 
the commissary chest, and went back and got 
some more, and was coming along with a doz- 
en under my arms, when I ran against a soldier 
who cried, "Halt !" I halted and started back- 
ward, accidentally dropped a bottle, which he 
stopped to pick up. I dropped a couple next 
time, and dodged around a corner and got 
away. I afterwards learned that he was not the 
regular sentry, but Susie Cornell, holding the 
boys up with a broomstick. That night the 
officers searched the stalls and kept such a 
sharp look-out that it was several days before 
we dared look at the chest, let alone drink any 
of the "stuff." One day Jack's father came 
over to see us and thinking to do honor to the 
occasion, we went to the chest and found it was 
empty. Those degenerate heathen in the 
Commissary Department, with the help of that 
son-of-an-army-cook, Skip Wilson, had drank 
it all. 



Camp Ramsey, May 16. 
Last day in camp. The Y. M. C. A. gave 
the boys a lot of reading matter^ About a 
hundred of them were gathered there most of 
the afternoon, singing hymns. Saw some sor- 
rowful goodbyes that I do not care to write 
about. In the evening, we went on board the 
cars bound for San Francisco, via the Omaha 
and Union Pacific Route. We arrived at St. 
James in the middle of the night; the citizens 
were waiting for us with coffee and sandwiches. 
Four officers got left behind at Norfolk, Ne- 
braska, but caught us by following on an en- 
gine. After that, a sentry was placed at each 
end of the car when we stopped, in order to 
keep the private soldiers in, but the officers 
were allowed to pass out. Going through Wy- 
oming, we had one continual ovation, old vet- 
erans fired salutes, old ladies and children 
waved flags and sang, and the young ones 
threw kisses, whilst cowboys, Indians, China- 
men, shepherds and high school cadets vied 
with each other as to who should honor the 
soldiers most. From Colfax to San Francisco, 
we received treatment that will never be for- 
gotten, — flowers, oranges, eatables, drinkables, 

10 



and good wishes. All tried to make us feel 
welcome and at home, and I think they suc- 
ceeded, for many of the boys would rather be 
here than at home. 



CHAPTER II. 
CAMP LIFE IN SUNNY CALIFORNIA. 



San Francisco, Cal., June 2, 1898. 
We are camped at Camp Merritt, adjoining 
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. The time 
is passed in teaching the awkward squad how 
to fill out their uniforms, eliminating civilian 
characteristics, and branding U. S. upon him 
so strong that it is not necessary to look at 
his uniform to see he is a soldier. In the 
evening, San Francisco moved up to camp. 
The street cars are crowded and nearly every 
lady carries a bunch of flowers, or a basket of 
eatables. I noticed that several of the old 
guardsmen received passes to go down town, 
so I went to Colonel Reeve and asked for a 
pass so that I could visit some friends. "How 
long have you been in the guard?" he asked. 
"About two weeks," I replied. "Well, there 

11 



are men who have been in the guard two years 
who need drilling; you, doubtless, will also 
need it." So that night I had my first experi- 
ence in running the guard line. Six men and 
a corporal were located in a tent, the corporal 
to keep cases on the private soldiers, and after 
taps the top sergeant went around with a 
lantern and checked off every man who was 
absent. Next day those got extra duty, were 
confined in the guard house, or received some 
other mode of punishment. 

Camp Merritt, June 10. 
Our regiment played the San Francisco boys 
a game of ball yesterday and got done up to 
a finish, 25 to 5. The band and an army of 
North Star rooters went along. Scallon was 
pitcher. In the evening, I heard Joe Hays say 
to him, "When did you learn to play baseball? 
You must have learned nowhere, seventy miles 
from no place, and the newspaper burned up 
before the people heard of it." 

Camp Merritt, June 17. 

The members of the Minnesota Regiment 
were the guests of the Porteous Club at the 
Mechanics' Pavilion last night. We went 

It 



down in heavy marching order, marched in- 
side the building, Watson's band in the lead, 
amid the excited plaudits of the people. Com- 
pany A gave the manual of arms ; Company C, 
the bayonet drill; Company D, the calisthenic 
drill, and Company I, the setting-up exercises. 
Then, we had guard mount and were inspected 
by General Merritt who complimented Colonel 
Reeve on the efficiency of the regiment. Then, 
we were turned loose at the tables where we 
filled the inside man from the outside with ev- 
erything imaginable in the line of fruits, ice- 
creams, and other eatables and drinkables. Af- 
ter giving a Minnesota cheer for the Porteous 
Club, we marched back to camp. 



IS 



CHAPTER III. 
AFLOAT ON THE PACIFIC. 



June 26, 1898. 

Not for glory nor for plunder. 
But because of Freedom slain, 
The sons of Freedom gather, 
From the mountain and the plain. 
To smite with sword and fire. 
At the cruelty of Spain: 
So we'll strike on land and sea. 

Left "Camp Merritt" and went on board the 
"City of Para," bound for the Philippine Is- 
lands. The streets were crowded with people 
who gave us a royal send-off. It seemed im- 
possible for the police to keep the crowd back 
from the wharf. Some of the ladies did not 
seem to care for the policemen, at all, but broke 
through anyway. The police finally stopped 
all chance for argument by closing the doors 
and keeping everyone out. Our friends man- 
aged to get through somehow, and brought us 
food and necessaries enough to last till we 
reached Honolulu. The "City of Para" be- 
longs to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company 

14 



and was hastily fitted up for a troopship. She 
has three decks ; the upper, having state-rooms, 
was occupied by the officers ; the middle by the 
band, hospital corps, and some choice selected 
non-coms; while on the lower deck, in long 
rows of bunks, three tiers high, with only width 
for one man to pass through, was the rank and 
file; alongside of each bunk was a small tin 
vessel to hold the occupant's contribution to 
the "God of the Angry Sea." We went down 
two decks and the sentry ordered us down to 
another one, the lowest in the ship. One man 
looked down and remarked to another soldier, 
"For God's sake, they are not going to put us 
down there? Why, it is not fit to put cattle 
down into that hole." Colonel Reeve over- 
heard the remark and roared out, "Arrest that 
man and if he says another word put him in 
irons." The sentry marched the man away. 
I looked at the strong, wide face and heavy 
jaw, and recognized Dr. Beck*, of Company I, 
one of the most popular men in the regiment; 
he had vaccinated me at Camp Merritt. Later, 
saw him, when the American line was in front 



*At the present time a praotioing physioian at Hanley Falls, 
Minn. 



15 



of Caloocan, ride out in front of the firing line 
on horseback and take observations through 
his spy glass, whilst goo-goo bullets raised the 
dust all around him. He refused three different 
commissions to go into other regiments and 
was later in charge of our regimental hospital 
at Malate, and many of the boys owe their lives 
to him. Yet, now, he was under arrest, and 
at the close of the war was mustered out with 
the regiment as he went in, — a private soldier. 

This is the third expedition to the Philip- 
pines and consists of the following boats : The 
"Newport," with General Merritt on board; 
the "Indiana," the "Ohio," the "Valencia," the 
"Morgan City," and the "City of Para." We 
stayed out in the stream a short time and were 
surrounded by innumerable small boats, yachts, 
and steamers, chief of which was a "San Fran- 
cisco" newspaper boat, with the Fifty-first Iowa 
Volunteer band on board, serenading us, whilst 
every whistle was blowing, the cannon roaring, 
and men and women lined the shore and boats, 
waved their handkerchiefs and flags and wished 
us Godspeed. A number of the boats followed 
us to the mouth of the harbor, and on the last 
boat we saw a beautiful girl, with dark red 

16 



hair, who stood on the prow of the small boat 
as it pitched up and down, energetically en- 
couraging us onward. She later went to see 
the Montana Regiment away on the Pennsyl- 
vania and her presence had such an effect on 
W. H. Doyle, of that Regiment, that he dedi- 
cated the following lines to her: 

THE GIRL WITH DARK RED HAIR. 

The Pennsylvania slowly heaves 
Its anchor from the brine, 
This is the day Montana leaves 
To help a cause divine, 
And as we gently plow along, 
When cheering rends the air. 
We see among the eager throng 
A girl with dark red hair. 

She is bright as a morning star, 

Fair in the light of day, 

Cheering us on our way to war. 

Out, far out, and away. 

Standing, then, in a tow-boat's bow, 

A vision sweet and rare. 

The spray from off the plunging prow, 

Touching the dark red hair. 

As on the transport quickly flies. 
And ill the wind behaves. 
Regardless of our warning cries, 
The dashing sea she braves. 

(2) 17 



Drenched with the ever-rising spray 
That sparkles in the air, 
The center of that bright display, 
The girl with dark red hair. 

And by the world-famed Golden Gate, 

Where bay and ocean meet, 

We glide along to find our fate, 

If it be slow or fleet. 

In battle's strife, or on the wave. 

Within our hearts we'll wear 

An image sweet and fair and brave, 

A girl with dark red hair. 



As soon as we got outside the Golden Gate 
the trouble began. The boat commenced to 
rock, the boys to feed the fishes, and all our 
presents, pie, cake, shoes, etc., that were lying 
under our bunks, were washed into the scup- 
per. On the second day, went on deck and 
looked down into the forecastle where the cook 
dished up the food. About twenty men, de- 
tails from the different companies, each man 
with a pail of soup, or a five-gallon can of cof- 
fee, were trying to navigate when a swell 
struck the ship and they let go and grabbed 
anything or each other, till finally the black 
cook drove them out. 



18 



Pacific Ocean, July 1. 
The weather has cleared up and nearly all 
the boys are around again. On account of the 
poor ventilation and the black hole where we 
sleep being overcrowded, a large number of 
the boys sleep on deck without as much as a 
night-shirt between their bodies and the South- 
ern Cross. During the day, the band was 
practicing in the front of the boat, the bugle 
corps in the rear; in the hospital, the doctors 
were pumping out a soldier who had swallowed 
a poisonous compound by mistake; in the 
kitchen, the black cook was roasting the boys 
who were shirking kitchen duty; in various 
parts of the ship, the soldiers were reading, 
singing, writing, quarrelling, or sleeping; 
whilst on the upper deck, a number of the boys 
were playing the good, old, seductive American 
game of draw poker. 



19 



CHAPTER IV. 
IN THE COUNTRY OF "QUEEN LIL. 



Hawaiian Islands, July 5, 1898. 
Dropped anchor in Honolulu Harbor this 
morning. The Hawaiian Government Band 
was on the wharf, playing American national 
airs. People are all about, brown and white, 
looking nice and clean in their ice-cream 
clothes. The ladies wear Mother Hubbards 
and throw their dresses around in a very dan- 
gerous manner. Native boys swam around the 
ship, diving for pennies, whilst everyone yelled 
out the Hawaiian word for welcome, "Melica 
Hi." We stayed at Honolulu three days and 
fell in love with the place and the people. 
Nothing was too good for the American. One 
drug store man kept his soda fountain running 
all the time, gratis, to soldiers. The Anglo- 
Saxon population invited us to their homes. 
The Waverly Club opened its doors to us, with 
reading matter, writing material, toilet-rooms, 
etc., and on the second day the whole regiment 
was marched up to the Queen's Palace and 

30 



entertained to excess. Cocoanuts were there 
by the wagonload, soft drinks running a per- 
petual stream, and lovely girls were every- 
where. Bandmaster Watson and Sergeant 
Hatcher were both sent to the hospital here. 
Watson died shortly afterwards, and Hatcher 
recovered, and, at present, is holding a political 
appointment, with offices in the Capitol Build- 
ing, at St. Paul. 

Hawaii has had a strenuous history. Captain 
Cook discovered the island in 1778 and made 
the natives believe he was a god. Being acci- 
dentally pricked by a spear, they saw the blood 
flow, knew he was human, so turned in and 
killed him. From that time till 1893, the native 
regime held sway, practicing sorcery and in- 
decent rites. They sold the opium monopoly 
^to one man and then turned around and sold 
it to another, getting money from both parties. 
They allowed lotteries to run, and missionaries 
to trade Bibles for land. Some Englishmen 
got an old king drunk and secured a street 
car franchise for a certain number of years, 
then put on some old omnibuses and anti- 
quated mules and would not give any better 
service unless their franchise was entended 



%i 



thirty years. Expect soon to hear the Kanakas 
express the sentiment of the old negro when 
the first electric car was introduced into New 
Orleans: "The Union man come down, free 
de nigger. He now come down free de mule." 
In 1893, the whites became alarmed and 
formed themselves into a committee of safety, 
and asked aid from the U. S. Cruiser Boston, 
which landed blue jackets. The monarchy was 
overthrown and a provisional government 
formed. Everything was in disorder when the 
American minister, John L. Stevens, hoisted 
the Stars and Stripes and guaranteed protec- 
tion. Cleveland was president and sent Colonel 
Blunt to investigate the matter, with the re- 
sult that the United States flag was lowered 
and American citizens had to bow their heads 
in shame before the descendants of the mur- 
derers of Captain Cook. 



»9 



CHAPTER V. 
FROM HONOLULU TO PARNAQUE. 



"City of Para," July 24, 1898. 

Buckland, bugler of Company E, died today 
from inflammatory rheumatism. The captain 
and the preacher came along. The hospital 
stewards worked the corpse into his uniform. 
Two sailors got some canvas and some old 
iron, sewed the body and iron inside the can- 
vas, the preacher donned a black coat and a 
solemn face and read the burial service. Taps 
were blown by the bugler. The body slipped 
overboard, turning a somersault in the air, and 
inside of an hour all was over. Buckland was 
born on an English troopship, on the Medi- 
terranean Sea, en route for India, and died on 
an American troopship, en route for the Phil- 
ippines. 

In the bunk underneath Buckland was an 
old Minneapolis friend of mine, Jim Vetten- 
burg, now in Company L, who had the same 
complaint, rheumatism. He could not move 
hand or foot. When a fly or mosquito lit on 

23 



his face, he could not "bat it away," and when 
Buckland was dying he had to lie there and 
listen to his groans. He finally got the hospital 
stewards to take him down to the company 
quarters, and there we would go down and 
visit him. He was one of the strongest men 
I ever knew. He measured forty-five inches 
around the naked chest, and now a baby had 
more strength than he had. Company L did 
not have any better quarters than the rest of 
us. There was scarcely any ventilation; the 
place smelled like a rabbit warren, and it was 
oppressively hot. We tried to get some ice 
water for "Jim," but could not. The officers, 
in their cool cabins in the upper decks, had ice 
water, and even had their beer on ice, but poor 
old "Jim," who, in civil life, received as much 
salary as the best of them, was now a private 
soldier, and had to lie in the lowest deck, sick, 
unable to move, and could not get a cool drink. 
In the evening, a concert was given by the 
boys in the smoking-room on deck, where there 
is a piano. Varney was one of the singers and 
the last verse of his song was : 

"Of bean-soup, hard-tack, and red-horse. 

On shipboard we have had our fill, 

For they tell us it's best, when that don't digest. 

To take a compovmd cathartic pill." 

24 



As the song expressed our sentiments ex- 
actly, we applauded loudly, and Tom Graham 
remarked, "It's a shame to waste wind on a 
song like that, he ought to be paid in beer 
checks." After that, the piano was covered 
with canvas and roped down. 

We have had beautiful weather since leav- 
ing Honolulu. The food was bad and not 
enough to go around. Quarrels and complaints 
were as regular as the meal-times came around ; 
the hold of the ship below the waist was full 
of army stores, but the hold of the man below 
the waist was empty, so they lost their grip. 
What some people call embalmed beef and 
others call canned beef is very unlike the ar- 
ticle that is sold in America. This is in low, 
round cans, the meat is stringy and soupy, and 
quite frequently when the cans are first opened 
a gas escapes. A few of the cattle are alive 
yet, kept for the officers, and are fed carrots, 
which were stolen by the boys before the cows 
could eat them. So a guard was placed over 
the cows to see that the soldiers did not steal 
the carrots. A guard was also placed over the 
water we drank. It was salt water, distilled 
and was heated during the process. The men 

96 



line up, one behind the other, and get the water 
as fast as it comes through the apparatus, quite 
hot. We tested it one day and found one hun- 
dred and twenty-two degrees of heat, seventy- 
two being the normal temperature. Jack and 
I used to slip down during the night and get 
a canteen full and hang it on the rigging to 
cool. One night, whilst climbing the mast. 
Corporal Beals ordered me down, said it was 
against the orders and that he would report 
me. A few days afterwards the company was 
lined up and lectured about talking back to 
non-commissioned officers. This one was so 
wise he ought to have been in America, teach- 
ing his grandmother how to take care of babies, 
yet did not know enough to take care of the 
men nor would he allow them to take care of 
themselves. The fresh meat was used by the 
officers, and, when it got maggoty, was given 
to the men, who made remarks as strong as the 
.meat. Some of the colonel's language and 
threats will live long in the boys' memories, 
long after the inconveniences, temporarily suf- 
fered by the lack of good food, is forgotten. 

The ice in the beer chest must have melted 
away, for, on the latter part of the jourhey, the 



boys were allowed to purchase half boiled beer 
to the extent of twelve bottles per company. 

After passing the Ladrone Islands we saw 
an active volcano in operation; strong light 
was reflected in the heavens from this mam- 
moth incubator and heavy columns of smoke 
rolled forth from t^ie crater, but the pyrotechnic 
display would not do credit to an ordinary 
Fourth of July celebration in Minnesota. 



CHAPTER VI. 
THE SEAT OF WAR. 



Manila Harbor, July 31, 1898. 
We dropped anchor in Manila Bay and found 
the harbor well filled with army transports, 
gunboats, coalers, etc., whilst scattered around 
were to be seen the masts or upper decks of the 
Spanish battleships that Dewey had sunk on 
May 1. In front of these ships, in a straight 
line, facing Manila and the foreign warships, 
about twenty in number, were Dewey's little 
bull dogs, waiting for a chance to bark and bite. 
"The Star Spangled Banner" was flying over 



Cavite, whilst the fields beyond were as green 
as the Irishman's shamrock. 

We heard the Americans and Spaniards 
fighting the whole night long and some of the 
boys were afraid the war would be over before 
we landed. 

A number of native Cascas came flocking 
around the ship, selling fruit, etc. Mexican 
money went as far as gold ; in fact, everything 
went, some of the boys sending down beer 
checks and identification tags and receiving 
fruit and, sometimes, good money for ex- 
change. 

John Sell, a member of Company G, myster- 
iously disappeared this afternoon, and, though 
diligent search was made all through the ship, 
no clue was ever found to indicate what had 
become of him. 

Camp Dewey, Aug. 7. 
After forty days on board the "City of Para," 
we got orders to disembark and proceed to 
Camp Dewey, having traveled the longest 
journey an army ever made. Twenty-two men 
not being able to walk, were sent to the Marine 
Hospital at Cavite, and then the boys com- 

88 



menced to go ashore in the man-of-war's small 
boats. The sea was very rough and the waves 
would come and raise the boat to a level with 
the deck when the soldiers would step aboard. 
If they did not make the step at the time the 
boat was on the crest of the wave, they would 
have to wait till it came up again, as the boat 
would go down five or six feet with the wave. 
Some of them found it hard to make connec- 
tions and Colonel Reeve stood there, cussing 
and swearing at the men, and using language 
that would make an old Mississippi steamboat 
captain turn green with envy. We were 
marched to Camp Dewey and camped in a pea- 
nut field. Remember waking up in the night 
and found the water following the peanut ridges 
and running down my back. 

Next morning, got acquainted with an in- 
surgent officer, who took me to his home, 
where I was introduced to two very good look- 
ing Mestizo women. They examined my 
clothes, silk handkerchief, ring and watch, and 
were commencing to feel my hair when I, not 
caring to pose as a freak, broke away. He, 
then, took me over to the insurgent quarters 
and here I saw the first signs of war; in one 

30 



room where a dozen wounded Filipinos, their 
wounds wrapped in very dirty bandages, with 
flies crawling over the outside. In a corner 
was one man, out of his head, and four or five 
men were trying to hold him down, which 
simply had the effect of starting his wounds 
to bleed again. In the courtyard below, 
amongst a lot of filth, were six or eight Spanish 
prisoners, busy scratching themselves. 

Aug. 11. 
This morning we got orders to appear in 
light marching order, which, in this case, con- 
sisted of one hundred rounds of ammunition, a 
dozen hard-tack and a bold front; and were 
marched out to the trenches. Our location was 
opposite to and within three hundred yards 
of Spanish Block House No. 14, where we put 
in twenty-four hours, crawling in and out of 
trenches. If we got into a trench, the water 
would drown us out, and if we got out of it, 
the Spaniards would take a "pot shot" at us. 
It rained all the time we were at Camp Dewey. 
It was the wettest, muddiest, and most miser- 
able camp that we had during the war. Under 
the circumstances, it was the best possible, and 



it was well for the men we did not stay there 
long. The food consisted of dessicated pota- 
toes and hard-tack. On account of the ever- 
lasting kicking and complaining, we had great 
difficulty in keeping a company cook. It was 
amusing about meal-time to see the men come 
out to get their canary bird dinner. We were 
living in dog tents, two men in a tent. If a 
man had been on duty the previous night, his 
clothes would be lying outside in the rain 
and he would be cuddled up in a blanket. At 
meal-times, he would unroll from that and 
run out to the cook tent, and soon he would be 
seen coming back with some dessicated po- 
tatoes floating around in a platterful of water. 
Whilst here, I was ordered to relieve Private 
John W. Ames, of Company I, from guard 
duty one day whilst he v/ent and had a tooth 
pulled, which he had slivered by eating hard- 
tack. Hard-tack had such an effect on Fred 
Blake, of the Utah Battery, that he broke out 
into the following: 

THE OLD ARMY HARD-TACK. 

How dear to my heart are the war-time mementoes, 
I've cherished in memory of sorrows and joys, 
In the days when I tramped through the streets of 
Manila, 

81 



And splashed through the mud with the rest of the 

boys, 
I've a rusty old knife I never will part with, 
An old campaign hat and a jacket of blue, 
A battered canteen, and a haversack holding 
Some squares of the hard-tack we all had to chew. 

Chorus: The iron-bound hard-tack, 

The mould-covered hard-tack, 

The old army hard-tack we all had to chew. 

There was hard-tack from wars of the past genera- 
tions, 
Which remained unconsumed till this late Spanish 

war, 
*Tis rumored that some which defied mastication 
Were marked "Civil War" or the stamp "B. C." bore, 
What a triumph this is for the skill of the baker, 
Indestructible product, defying time's tooth, 
But it could not resist the assaults of our grinders, 
The grinders we had in the days of our youth. 

Chorus: There was 1812 hard-tack. 
And '62 hard-tack. 

The old army hard-tack we ate in our 
youth. 

Oh, youth can make feasts of the coarsest of viands, 
And never again shall we veterans feel 
Such a zest in our lives as we felt in this late war. 
When hard-tack sufficed to create a square meal, 
And, though we may dine at more sumptuous tables. 
We'd gladly exchange all the dainties they yield. 
For the hearty enjoyment and youthful digestion 
That seasoned the hard-tack we ate in the field. 

Chorus: The bullet-proof hard-tack. 
The petrified hard-tack. 
The old army hard-tack we ate in the field. 



82 



We were relieved by the North Dakotas next 
morning and marched back to camp through a 
beating rain, with hair all out of curl and toe 
nails crinkling in the water. 



CHAPTER VII. 
CAPTURE OF MANILA. 



Manila, Aug. 13, 1898. 
Reveille at 4:30; had a thin breakfast, then 
stowed away twelve hard-tacks, a canteen full 
of coffee, and one hundred rounds of ammuni- 
tion, and started out to capture Manila. Of 
course, it was raining, but the rain in no way 
affected the enthusiasm of the soldiers, they 
had put ten thousand miles between themselves 
and home for the purpose of paying their little 
tribute to the memory of the Maine, and now 
was the time and here the place, so they re- 
lieved the North Dakotans in the trenches; 
about 9:30, the cannonading commenced and 
we were listening to the various sounds made 
by the different kinds of cannon when we got 
the order to go ahead. Captain Rowley, at the 
head of the company in his seven-league boots, 

(3) 83 



went like a race horse ; Lieut. Keiler ran along- 
side, keeping the boys together, "Come on, 
boys!" "Close up!" "Keep together!" As for 
myself, I made the best sprint possible — ^was 
afraid of getting left. Just through the 
trenches, we met two insurgents trotting back 
with another, wrapped in a blanket, slung on 
two sticks; at every jog they made, the blood 
spurted through the blanket. The Utah Bat- 
tery boys were pulling their cannon through 
the trees with a long rope, after knocking a 
hole into Block House 14, which drove the 
Spaniards out. On reaching the corner near 
the little stone wall, we ran into such a hail 
of bullets that we got orders to lie down flat 
upon the road. Captain McQuade here got 
orders to take his company and support Cap- 
tain McKelvey, who, with Company M, was 
scattered among the bushes, snipping away at 
the Spaniards in the trees and trenches im- 
mediately in front. Instead of obeying orders, 
Capt. McQuade, hugging the stone wall, re- 
plied that he was sick and could not go ahead. 
Lieut. Donaldson then jumped to the front 
and cried, "Come on, boys; follow me!" The 
company was shortly afterwards called back to 

84 



dig intrenchments. The sick man g;rabbed a 
shovel and commenced to excavate for dear 
life. Bob Whyte, seeing the dirt flying, said 
to the convalescent, taking care to look at an- 
other man at the same time, "Work, old soldier, 
work.'* He was handed the shovel and kept 
so busy he had no time to make further re- 
marks. Capt. McKelvey, with his hat stuck 
on one side, was having the time of his life, 
turning Spanish sharpshooters into aerial acro- 
bats. He seemed to have been accustomed to 
that kind of business all his life, and didn't care 
whether he got any reinforcements or not. 
Major Bean got busy here; seeing us simple 
spectators, he had us dig intrenchments; then, 
we got orders to go to the next corner, which 
we did, passing a half dozen wounded, and 
Archie Patterson, dead, on the way. From 
here, we had orders to go back to Block House 
14 to protect the flank and met thirty Spanish 
prisoners and one Philippine soldier, waving a 
white flag, coming in smiling and bowing and 
eating hard-tack. The firing diminished con- 
siderably now, so we got orders to form col- 
umns of fours, go back to the coxner we came 
from, and then up the road to Singalon church. 



85 



which was on a line with the Spanish trenches. 
Passed a burning Spanish block house that the 
Astor Battery had set on fire; then, went past 
a company of insurgents with their flag flying, 
and stopped at the church and let a few com- 
panies of the Twenty-third Regulars go past 
us. We met quite a number of wounded be- 
ing carried back to the rear, and there must 
have been twenty wounded men in the church, 
whilst all around were broken furniture, bloody 
bandages and pools of blood. This is the last 
place we were under fire, so we marched into 
Manila smokeless veterans. 

Through some mistake of the officers in the 
transmission of orders the Third Battalion did 
not arrive on the firing line as early as ex- 
pected and though exposed to a galling fire 
from the Spaniards was not actively engaged. 
Arrived on the Luneta about five o'clock, and 
were immediately placed on guard at Calle 
Real, Malate, six men at each cross street, with 
orders to keep the armed insurgents moving to- 
ward the outskirts. That night we camped on 
the sidewalk, which was covered with little red 
insects ; when we were not challenging natives 
we were scratching ourselves. After twenty- 

36 



four hours of this work we took possession of 
the old Spanish Barrack at Malate, and did not 
do a thing the next twenty-four hours but 
sleep. 

The Spaniards had made drawings on the 
walls, showing how they would drive the 
"Yankee pigs" into the sea, but now the "pigs" 
have rooted them out and have possession of 
the pigpen. 

Manila, Aug. 15. 

Catlin and I went up to the Walled City and 
found it not dressed in its best suit of clothes, 
the water has been shut off and the streets 
are filthy. Here are the cathedral (some Span- 
ish soldiers were playing monte on the altar), 
several churches, hospitals, convents, mon- 
asteries, storehouses, military barracks, and 
very few private residences. 

Spanish prisoners were sitting around the 
saloons, drinking vino, eating peanuts, and 
talking army. They have surrendered their 
arms, the grounds at the arsenal being covered 
with them. We went into three or four churches 
and found them filled with Spanish sick and 
wounded, attended by priests and nuns. In 
an outbuilding, adjoining one of the churches, 

87 



was a number of the dead who had been 
killed on the thirteenth and not yet buried. 
They were lying on stretchers, shoes and 
clothes covered with blood and mud, just as 
they had died. Down the street, a Spanish of- 
ficer was whipping a native with a cane. On 
the Luneta, we saw several old native women 
picking little green insects from the bushes and 
eating them. In New Manila, beno was selling 
for one cent, Mexican, per glass; cigars, one 
cent, and native soda water, two cents. Gam- 
bling games were running on the street cor- 
ners, whilst Chinese hop-joints were open to 
the street. Bare-footed native women were 
sitting down, selling fruit, and when not hand- 
ling fruit would be scratching the sores on 
their syphilitic legs. One woman had a cup of 
coffee and was busy milking from her own 
breast into it, whilst another was walking down 
the street with her paps hanging over her shoul- 
der. The Chinese coolies are clad in nature's 
dress-suits with a breech-clout for an overcoat. 
The native men wear shirts and pants; in case 
they own a pair of shoes, they will carry them 
on their heads until they arrive at their desti- 
nation and then wear them. Their principal oc- 

88 



cupation consists in pouring maledictions upon 
the Spaniards, and priests in particular, and 
when not doing that they will be out cock- 
fighting or playing monte. The children, under 
eight and nine years of age, are clad in nothing 
but smiles. After that age, the ladies wrap a 
cloth around themselves, which extends from 
the bosom to the knees, according to inclina- 
tion, some shorter, some longer. They use the 
goo-goo bark with which to wash their hair, and 
their mouths to chew the buyo nut. I noticed 
several going down the street with matter from 
running sores dropping from their legs to the 
sidewalk, whilst from their mouths they ex- 
pectorated the blood-red buyo juice. They live 
in nipa houses, built four feet from the ground, 
using the upper part as a living room, the 
lower part for a water-closet. Of the Spanish 
population, the soldiers and the friars are the 
most noticeable, the latter, from grinding the 
faces of the poor, are jolly, rotund, corpulent 
specimens of good cheer, and good living; 
whilst the soldiers have washed-out, pale com- 
plexions, weak physiques, receding foreheads, 
and a hungry expression. 



89 



Aug. 18/ 
Sydney Pratt, of Company A, who was sick 
and left behind at Camp Dewey, died today. A 
number of the boys were down there getting 
provisions, camp equipage, etc., which they 
carried on their backs or placed in carts which 
they pulled with long ropes. The boys dug a 
grave for the deceased, had John Dallam per- 
form the funeral service, after which the firing 
squad fired a volley over the poor boy's lonely 
grave, and then went thoughtfully and sorrow- 
fully back to Manila. It was a miserable place 
to die in and a lonely place to be buried. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

IN OLD SPANISH BARRACKS AT 
MALATE. 



Malate, Aug. 21, 1898. 
We had frozen meat brought from Australia 
on shipboard for dinner today, the first fresh 
meat we have had for about five weeks. Dur- 
ing that time we had bacon and hard-tack, with 
granulated potatoes on the side. We have been 
figuring that we can exist on nothing pretty 
soon, as the food seems to get beautifully less 



40 



every day. Jack was on kitchen detail and cut 
the meat up to fit the men's appetite, and the 
result was that the first half of the company 
got a fair, decent, meal and the last half got 
nothing. They made such a roar that Aunty 
Bates, the commissary sergeant, came running 
out, but as the soldiers had eaten the meat and 
Bates did not have a stomach pump he could 
not do anything. 

Manila, Aug. 29. 
Eight of us were on a detail today, pulling 
a cart all around, delivering meat from the ship 
to the companies stationed in different parts 
of the town. Jimmy Brown was pulling along- 
side me and he made the atmosphere sulphur- 
ous with profanity. The meat was smelling 
and sizzling in the heat, and the sun seemed 
to burn into our brains. The other regiments 
have horse or buffalo carts to do this work. 
There are ten thousand Spanish prisoners rest- 
ing in the shade; Chinese coolies and natives 
to be had for twenty-five cents per day. Some 
say we have a ten thousand dollar regimental 
fund. The soldiers are all more or less sick, 
yet the men in authority must needs quench 
what little patriotism is left in the boys by 

41 



making them do the work of horses. It is 
taking the ambition out of them ; the time was, 
when, if volunteers were asked for for any duty, 
the whole company would step forward. Now, 
when the officers ask for volunteers the men 
put on a blank face, sidestep away, and mutter, 
"I volunteered once ." 



CHAPTER IX. 
ON POLICE DUTY. 



Sampoloc, Aug. 30, 1898. 

We moved into the police station at Sam- 
poloc; thought we were very fortunate in get- 
ting such good quarters. There is a shower 
bath to the rear of quarters where the boys 
bathe and wash their clothes on the Philippine 
plan, which is, take them under the shower, 
soap them good, pound the dirt out with a club, 
and hang them on the fence to dry. 

Sampoloc is the red light district of Manila, 
near the outskirts, and consequently healthy. 
From now till the insurrection broke out, we 
fared well, had fresh meat several times per 
week, had firewood furnished, and good water 

43 



to drink. Guard duty became more regular, one 
day on guard, one on fatigue and one of rest. 
Days in the army are twenty-four hours long. 
About this time the boys took their first lessons 
in pantomiming or talking with their face, 
hands and feet. There was always a little ex- 
citement around quarters, so time passed quick- 
ly, and the boys were kept busy settling their 
natural disputes and difficulties which arise 
between people of various nationalities; the 
protection of the person and property of the 
Spaniard against the insurgents and Chinese; 
the settlement of money disputes between the 
different nationalities, the large majority not 
understanding why one silver American dollar 
should be the equal of two Philippine dollars 
of the same size. Add to these the foreign 
prostitutes, the drunken sailors, the Spanish 
prisoners, the sauey insurgent, an occasional 
leper or madman, not any of them able to talk 
United States, and the American policeman not 
able to talk their language, and it will readily 
be seen that the boys did not have much time 
to spare. 

During the late unpleasantness, the lepers 
had taken French leave and were scattered all 



48 



through the town, and the first work of the 
provo-guard was to comb them together again. 
The first move a native made when arrested 
was to try to find the policeman's price. When 
they learned that the American soldier did not 
exchange special favors for dobie dollars, they 
could not comprehend at all. 

Sampoloc, Oct. 8. 
During the night we heard an awful row and 
awoke to the fact that the sentinel had a man 
pinned up in a corner at the point of the bayo- 
net. The man wanted to get away, but the 
sentry swore by the Eternal he would run him 
through if he tried to move. The noisy man 
belonged to H Company, and had been mixing 
"Gyrus Noble Whisky" with beno and did not 
care for God, man or devil. He made such a 
racket that the Major and Captain came down 
stairs to see what was the trouble. They told 
him to shut up, but that made him worse. 
"Major," he said, **I know you and Captain 
Rowley, I respect you, but, G — d — you, I can 
whip you both." This was strong talk, so af- 
ter trying persuasion a little longer they had 
him gagged and bound and thrown into the cal- 
aboose where he passed the night. 

44 



CHAPTER X. 
INSIDE THE INSURGENT LINES. 



Marquino, Nov. 27, 1898. 

Hearing that gold was to be found in the 
mountains, eight of us applied to the Captain 
for a seven days' leave of absence, which was 
passed to Colonel Ames and granted. Corey 
and I went to the insurgent Captain, Arevala,'^ 
and got a letter of introduction to Flores, the 
insurgent president of Marquino province, and 
then we started on our journey. 

It appears we ought to have had a pass from 
General Otis and also one from Aguinaldo to 
make this trip, which was into the insurgent 
country, but we did not know about that till 
we returned. We got orders not to take any 
firearms, so we put our revolvers into the tin of 
hard-tack, placed tacks on top, hired a canoe, 
and arrived at Marquino, seven miles from 
Manila, with a population of eleven thousand, 
at ten o'clock at night. 



""At present Chief Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court. 
45 



Balbino, our native factotem, went to the 
president and informed him of our arrival. We 
were invited to his house, and after a pow-wow 
of some duration we spread our blankets on the 
floor and were about to turn in, when we heard 
a noise outside and saw a procession of seem- 
ingly all the village marching down the street, 
the Philippine flag at the head; then a native 
band of about thirty pieces, every instrument 
^ of which was made of bamboo, with the excep- 
tion of a wonderful drum and a tin whistle 
which the leader used. The music was the 
"worst ever," but we applauded and made them 
believe it was the "only kind." We succeeded 
so well that they gave us a dozen selections 
before they went away. In the intervals be- 
tween the music two insurgent companies of 
soldiers, one of men and the other of boys, 
both armed with wooden guns, would drill and 
parade in front of the house. Their work was 
rank, but we tried to make them think it was 
the only correct thing. The officers were 
armed with swords and if a soldier made a 
false move, which was nearly all the time, the 
officer would hit him over the shoulders or legs 
with the flat of the sword. We went to sleep 

46 



sometime in the morning, and when we awoke 
the president had a chicken breakfast ready 
for us. 

Nearby was a small drug store and on the 
walls were "Castoria" and Singer Sewing Ma- 
chine advertisements, yet we were the first 
Americans ever in the town, and Bill Hand- 
scum was the first American to buy a bottle of 
whisky in Marquino. We bid goodbye to our 
president friend and gave him a pressing in- 
vitation to visit us in Manila. If he accepts 
it, I see his finish. We'll make him so drunk 
he'll never go back. Then we hired a horse and 
caronetta to carry our knapsacks and started 
out on foot for San Matea. The horse was a 
brave little fellow, but the roads were terrible. 
Sometimes the wheels would go down into the 
ruts and the caronetta would rest on the axle- 
tree and then all hands would have to take 
hold and help lift. The natives were plow- 
ing with buffaloes and crooked sticks; do not 
even have two handles to their natural im- 
plements. Tailors sit cross-legged in the door- 
ways. The blacksmith fits the horseshoe on 
cold. The Chinese barbers use a razor like a 
cleaver to scratch your face with. The laundry 

47 



women go out into the river to wash their 
clothes and will then go on the bank and comb 
and wash their hair with the goo-goo bark; 
then will get a cigarette between their teeth 
and brace up to the first individual they meet, 
be it man or woman, and ask for a light from 
their cigar or cigarette. The rice is threshed 
by men and women, who jump up and down 
and thresh it out with their feet. It is ground 
by women, who use a mallet and pound it out 
by "Armstrong" power. The rope factories 
furnished employment for two men each, one 
man turning a crooked stick, the other one feed- 
ing the sisal. As there is no sawmill on the 
island the boards are hewn or sawn by Chinese 
with cross-cut saws, one man pulling the saw 
one way and another pulling it back again. On 
the Manila and Dagupan railroad, the cross- 
ties are made of mahogany, the ties alone would 
pay for the building and equipment of another 
road of equal size. 

At the Hotel Oriente, the floors, stairs, etc., 
are made of mahogany and polished like the 
surface of a piano. Some of the tables are five 
feet wide and ten feet long, made out of a sin- 
gle mahogany plank. The lumber was floated 



48 



down the river to Manila and is of almost in- 
calculable value, but has been held by the 
friars, who, desiring to keep education, prog- 
ress, and foreigners out of the country, exacted 
such conditions and caused such taxes to be 
imposed that business was made so uncertain 
and unsatisfactory that lumbermen could not 
afford to engage in the speculation. The na- 
tive houses are built of bamboo with nipa 
thatch for a roof, the floors are made of split 
bamboo, the outside fiber being used to tie the 
joists together, the windows are made of fish 
scales instead of glass and all the native needs 
is a knife and he soon has a house. Bamboo 
is also used for making furniture of all descrip- 
tions, scaffolding, rafts, musical instruments, 
carts, baskets, fish-traps, hats, mats, etc. 

Coffee used to be grown on Luzon quite ex- 
tensively. Some Englishmen started a large 
planation in Pampamga and fifteen years ago 
exported twenty million pounds annually. Now, 
owing to the blight, the disturbed conditions of 
war, and exactions of the Spaniards, the output 
has dwindled to two hundred and fifty thousand 
pounds. A fine quality of sugar-cane is also 
grown here, and all consumed at home, being 

(4) 49 



used in its coarse state, as there are not any 
refineries on the islands. Copper, sulphur, 
gold, marble, lead, iron and coal have been dis- 
covered in different parts of the archipelago, 
which, taken in conjunction with the Manila 
hemp, sugar-cane, tobacco, coffee, chocolate 
beans, cocoanut, corn, mangoes, bananas, yams, 
oranges, limes, tamarinds, lemon, rice, indigo 
and other products, together with the pearl 
fisheries, will make it, when developed, com- 
mercially the equal of any tract of country the 
same size on earth. During our journey, the 
natives flocked to see us from far and near. If 
we had horns and a tail they would have not 
regarded us more intently. When Jack took 
out his false teeth to wash them they ran away, 
and when at a safe distance they stopped and 
commenced stretching their necks again, look- 
ing as though they expected him to take his 
head off next. About twelve o'clock, we came 
to a river where an insurgent outpost was sta- 
tioned. He halted us, asked us if we had any 
firearms, searched us and found none, and asked 
where we were going, and finally sent us 
in charge of three soldiers to San Matea, where 
we were taken before the president, who tried 

50 



to pump us as dry as a sand bank and then let 
us proceed. 

It appears that the Philippine Republic 
is divided into provinces, each one gov- 
erned by a local president who is subject to 
Aguinaldo. They must be organized, for I 
saw written on the door of the different rooms 
at the local president's house these words: 
"Rents," "Taxes," "Justice." This town is sev- 
enteen miles from Manila, has eight thousand 
population, and is the place where General 
Lawton was killed two years later. At this 
time, the insurgents had about eighty Spanish 
prisoners here who seemed to be decently 
cared for. They had to work for the natives 
for their food. From here we went to Mont- 
alban, which lies at the foot of the mountains. 
There was a new church here, with intrench- 
ments thrown up around, and near by were the 
insurgents' headquarters, with the Philippine 
flag flying from the roof. At the farther end 
of the town, we came to the river and thought 
we would be safer on the other side, so we 
crossed over, the current being so swift that 
pebbles rolled against our feet. We started to 
make camp when a native sergeant and detail 

61 



of men came over and asked by what rights 
or privileges we claimed possession, and asked 
if we had permission to camp there. We re- 
plied we had verbal permission from the presi- 
dent of San Matea. The answer came quick as 
a flash that we were not in San Matea, but in 
the province of Montalban, that we had neg- 
lected to salute the Philippine flag when going 
through the town, and that we must go up 
and see the president; *Corey and half of the 
boys went up to see his royal nibs, whilst the 
rest of us sat down on our earthly belongings, 
looking sideways at the little brown soldiers 
with their rusty Remingtons and ragged regi- 
mentals and wondered when it would all end. 
After about two hours' conference, the boys 
came back again, and said we could stay and 
that the president would furnish us soldiers 
wherever we wished to go. We didn't want 
them, but he furnished them just the same. We 
passed five days at this place and it rained four. 
We heard there was a cave up in the moun- 
tains, so we made several efforts to find it, but 
could not. So the president sent two soldiers 



*At the present time a Lieutenant in Twenty-second Battery 
Heavy Artillery. 



53 



to show us. They took us up the river bank 
and showed us the cave on the other side. The 
current was so swift we could not cross, so 
we were nearly all day working our way back 
to where we could cross the river and get to 
the cave. It was of white marble, so hard it 
was impossible to make a dent in it with our 
knives, so we made some charcoal and wrote 
our names on the wall. There were several 
Spanish names and three English ones — Court- 
ney, Russell, and Higginbottom, the latter 
gentleman, with whom we are acquainted, 
lives in Manila at the present time. When 
coming back to camp, among the rocks 
along the bank of the river, Upson was 
about to step on a green snake when the 
natives yelled and pointed to it. tUpson put 
his foot down in another place and slipped into 
the water. §Manning, on a neighboring rock, 
heard the noise, turned around, lost his balance 
and fell square on top of Upson, who, having 
his eyes full of water, did not know what was 
next to him. The desperate eflforts he made to 
get away were so comical that even the natives 



fNow a praotioing: attorney in Minneapolii. 
§Now a provincial treasurer in Luzon. 

68 



laughed, though but a minute before his eyes 
bulged out with fear. 

We heard men shouting and dogs barking 
one whole night and sat up waiting for our time 
to come, but finally learned that the natives 
were out hunting boars. That set Upson and 
Corey crazy. They must have a boar hunt 
also, so next day they got a number of natives 
and dogs and succeeded in starting a boar, who 
gave them a run for their money. The boys 
cut their shoes on the rocks and tore their 
clothes in the bushes; the boar mangled one 
dog and gouged the eye out of another and 
broke away, but the boys were happy and sat- 
isfied — they'd had a boar hunt. 

The object of the expedition was to find gold 
which we heard was to be found here, and we 
have been looking for it all the time. Mitchell 
came in with a small piece yesterday. Jack 
and one of the natives came in with some col- 
ors, also, but I could not do anything in that 
line and was coming home through the rain 
today in disgust when I ran across two old 
women scratching in the sand, by a small 
stream, with a spearhead for a pick and a half 
cocoanut for a shovel, so I turned in and 

64 



worked for dear life alongside of them, but 
could only get about a dozen colors. The old 
ladies must have had seven dollars worth of 
dust. These mountains are very rough, some 
of them composed of nothing but loose rock 
which is not solid but full of crevices and 
holes where the monkeys and boars go and 
work around so that we were unable to follow 
them. 

On the seventh day we returned to Manila 
and the whole company turned out and gave us 
a hearty welcome home. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE UNTOUCHABLE FILIPINO IN 

CAMP. 



Dec. 11, 1898. 
Downing, of H Company, and myself went 
down to see B^lbino, who inquired who Down- 
ing was. I told him he was a young man 
about to become a priest. "Ha ! Ha !" the old 
reprobate remarked, "him get all fine girls." 
Jack dropped in about this time and Balbino 
commenced to tell us that Aguinaldo and an- 

59 



other Filipino, named Mariana, were bullet- 
proof, and that bullets would almost reach 
them and then slide by on one side. They 
laughed at us when we told them the world 
was not wide enough for an American to miss 
a man in, at two hundred yards. They were 
so incredulous and certain, that finally Jack 
told them he would give one hundred dollars 
to the man he failed to hit at that distance. 
The house was full of natives by this time, and 
they seemed anxious to have the affair come 
off. As it was a moonlight night they agreed 
to get Mariana and meet us at 36 Calle Calecon 
at ten o'clock that night. Jack and I did not 
have the money, but managed to borrow it 
from different friends, chucked it into a haver- 
sack and went down to the meeting place. 
Balbino and a houseful of natives were there, 
but no Mariana, so we stayed there till eleven 
o'clock and then went back to quarters. 

Police Station, Jan. 16. 

Balbino came running up and said that the 

invisible and invulnerable Filipino Mariana 

was at his home, so Jack and I got our guns 

and money and hustled down after him. The 

66 



place was filled with natives, but when we ap^ 
peared Mariana went into a little closet and 
shut himself in and said he would meet us to- 
morrow. The amusing part of the episode was 
Balbino, whose faith in the untouchable Fil- 
ipino up to this time was imperishable. When 
the man shut himself up, Balbino ran out and 
borrowed twenty dollars on his diamond ring, 
and then came back and offered to bet on the 
Americanoes. Then he wanted to borrow my 
revolver. I asked him what for. "Want to 
go kill him myself." Next morning Balbino 
came up and told us there was a dead body ly- 
ing about ten feet away from the building 
where we had been the previous night, but did 
not want me to tell the Captain, so I told some 
one else to tell him, and went along with Bal- 
bino. Pretty soon, Captain Rowley came along 
accompanied by Major Diggles. The deceased 
was a young man about twenty years of 
age, stabbed five times in the chest. The blood 
was black and clotted, and the body swelling 
and smelling in the hot sun. We turned the 
body over and found the arms were tied behind 
his back with cord. The Major told the boy's 
father to take the body away and wash it and 

67 



get a burial permit, but he did not do a thing, 
and the body was still lying there putrifying 
late in the afternoon, when Jack and I got the 
native grave digger and two others to carry the 
body, and took it up to the churchyard. The 
grave digger had an old mattock for a pick and 
a basket for a shovel, and in digging down he 
crashed through two skeletons, one set of 
bones green, the other old and brittle. The 
boy's mother brought a pillow to rest the de- 
ceased's head upon, and a piece of matting to 
spread over the body. We covered the poor 
fellow up in his gore with his arms still tied 
behind him. Balbino said he had seen him at 
a store, kept by a girl, the previous evening. 
We went over there, but she swore she had not 
seen him. Balbino said: "Put her in the 
stocks and beat her, as the Spaniards did, then 
she'll tell," but, of course, we could not do that. 
This was the first man killed with his arms tied 
behind him; we found five or six others killed 
in the same manner before the insurrection 
broke out. 

At the present time the Americans have pos- 
session of Manila and Cavite, the Filipinos 
the remainder of the island* They occupy the 

58 



line of trenches and blockhouses around Manila 
extending from shore to shore, formerly 
used by the Spaniards. Their officers 
and men come into Manila. They have a reg- 
ular recruiting station at No. 26 Calle Calecon, 
and their local president blocks every move 
we make. They carry matters with a high 
hand ; levy contributions ; intimidate those who 
do not sympathize with them ; carry off women, 
and act exactly as they have been taught to do 
by the Spaniards. 

Tom Graham arrested a Spanish soldier who 
had cut and was chasing another down the 
street with a cleaver. Next morning Sergeant 
Joe Stracham told him to take his prisoner 
down to the court room. Tom did not know 
the way down there, but the prisoner did, so 
they started out and arrived just as the judge 
was going home. He asked Tom why he did 
not come earlier, and Tom replied his orders 
were to follow the prisoner. The judge dis- 
missed the case. The Spaniard was guilty, and 
his captain had given him ten dollars to pay his 
fine, so Tom and the Spaniard spent the money 
in liquid refreshments and were then both ar- 
rested, but the patrol, being composed of Min- 
nesota men, knew Tom and let them go again. 

59 



Manila, Dec. 28. 

Baker and I went over to Paco cemetery to- 
day. The gates are about fifteen feet high, 
and, being locked, we climbed over. The dead 
are placed in vaults, three tiers high. A ren- 
tal has to be paid for the use of the vault, to the 
men in skirts, who charge $25.00 for the first 
five years, and an annual payment from that 
time till the Day of Resurrection. If the tax 
is not paid, the body is raked out, as a fireman 
rakes the cinders out of an engine, and then 
thrown over the wall into the boneyard, which 
is now about ten feet high, where skulls and 
bones in different stages of decomposition are 
baking in the sun, the coffins being stolen by 
the natives for firewood. A number of the 
Minnesota boys are buried here in the ground, 
and beautiful headstones mark their resting- 
place. 

Here also lie the remains of Sergeant Mer- 
win M. Carleton*, of Company E. At Camp 
Merritt, he was vaccinated and his arm was 
swollen so badly that there was talk about am- 



*Camp Merwin M. Carleton No. 4, Army of the Philippine!, is 
named in hia honor. It is the largest and strongest oamp in the 
United States. 



60 



putating it. He was wounded at the taking of 
Manila, on the 13th of August, and had barely 
recovered when he was laid low with malarial 
fever, and when scarcely able to move around, 
in his anxiety to do all he could, he returned 
to company quarters and reported for duty, 
and on his first turn on patrol was shot. 

Previous to that time, no Protestant was al- 
lowed to be buried in Manila. Some boys from 
the Kansas Regiment came down and took 
some skulls away for souvenirs and contracted 
smallpox, so now a guard is placed at the 
cemetery. Whilst ruminating on these mat- 
ters, a detail from Company A came along and 
were about to place us under arrest, but recog- 
nizing us, took us along to dinner, instead. 
Company A, guarding graveyards; Company 
B, guarding prostitutes. One the grave, the 
other the way to it. 



61 



CHAPTER XII. 
CHRISTMAS DAY. 



Manila, Dec. 25, 1898. 
The celebration really started at four o'clock 
yesterday afternoon, for that is the time that 
the Christmas boxes arrived from Minnesota, 
and if S. T. Johnson and the Auxiliary Associa- 
tion had seen the reception the boxes received 
they would have felt gratified. The boys fair- 
ly went wild, and in a short time everything 
was topsy-turvy. Tom Graham and myself 
had been feeling a little blue. We did not 
have many friends behind us and did not ex- 
pect a thing and were very agreeably surprised. 
My box had been filled by the North Side 
High School, whilst Tom's had been filled 
by the '^Housekeeper Newspaper" people, both 
of Minneapolis. I remember greedily gather- 
ing my possessions together, chuckling to my- 
self, and noticed Tom on a bench making a 
speech. As he was monopolizing all the 
noise, Jimmy Brown jumped up and roared 
out: "Gentlemen, I beg leave to—." "I 

63 



don't care what you leave," Tom yelled, "as 
long as you leave my box." Someone kicked 
the bench from under him and that started a 
rough house which continued with more or 
less intermission for forty-eight hours. Dur- 
ing the scuffle, Worden knocked McGinnis 
against a lamp, McGinnis split his ear and cut 
his chin, so Carlson was ordered to go with 
him to the Colorado doctor and get sewed to- 
gether. They then industriously turned in and 
got Christmasly drunk. Corporal Moses found 
them and I remember him linking Carlson stiff- 
leggedly up the street, whilst McGinnis came 
behind, with a bandage around his head, over 
both ears, and wrapped around his chin, his 
coat off, shirt unbuttoned and covered with 
blood, yelling like a Comanche Indian. The 
officers inquired into the matter, the boys said 
it was an accident and no one was to blame, 
and many who were not there at all were 
willing to say that was so. 

In the morning. Jack and I went down to 
Ma's for breakfast and had fresh eggs, potted 
ham, chocolate, sliced peaches and cream. 
About nine o'clock, John Dallam* came up- 

*At present time chaplain to the Twenty-second Regiment, 
V. 8. A. 

68 



stairs to our room, where half of the company 
were assembled, and gave us a nice little 
Christmas talk. Fletcher played the piano and 
we had some good singing. The boys in the 
second section clubbed together twenty dollars 
and Corporal Smith was busy making punch all 
day, nutmeg, sugar, whisky and berries. The 
boys got full of berries and went rolling home 
in the morning. In the afternoon "Windy 
Biir' put the boys through the bawling out 
exercises. He asked the questions and we all 
joined in the answers as emphatically as pos- 
sible : 

"Who is the corporal of ill repute?" "Up- 
son.'' 

"Who will hold the bridge or bust?" "Law." 
"Who has fifty dollars in gold?" "Elmer 
Eile." 

"Who is the ladies' companion?" "Powers." 
"Who stole the priest's wine?" "EUinger." 
"Who would make a good lightning rod?" 
"Graham." 

"Who wouldn't loan his Krag?" "Shoe- 
maker." 

"Who lost his appetite?" "Beals." 
"Who burned the beans?" "Carlson." 



64 



"Who is the boy hero?" "McKeever." 
"Who is the oriental tourist?" "Campbell." 
"Who is the section boss?" "Welsh." 
"Who lost his eyesight looking for goo- 

goos?" "Bowe." 

"Who ate all the sugar?" "Coates." 
"Who is the rookie?" "Baker." 
"Who is the sidewalk comedian?" "Varney." 
"Who is Diggles' dog robber?" "Bracket." 
"Who wants to be a corporal?" "Cole." 
"Who has cobwebs in his gun?" "Brown." 
"Who wears everybody's socks but his 

own?" "Elmer Eile." 
"Who stayed in San Francisco to cook for 

the officers?" "Hale." 
"Who is the bum bugler?" "Smaby." 
"Who halted his own shadow?" "Worden." 
"Who got wounded in the back?" "Meggi- 

son." 
"Who is limping Jesus?" "Mitchell." 
"Who robs the soldiers?" "Cornell." 
"Who walks on his eyeballs on Christmas 

day?" "Handscum." 

Then Peanuts stepped up and gave his 

Washington Avenue spider web oration on 

popcorn : 

(5) 66 



"One day a farmer had a jug of molasses 
sitting on the back porch, when a cyclone 
came up and took the molasses and dropped it 
into an old woman's milkcan, who had just 
set the can down to get a fresh grip, as she 
was taking the milk to town to peddle. The 
wind emptied the milk out and dropped the 
molasses in, which so startled and infuriated 
the old woman that she fell up against a farm- 
er's corncrib that was full of com. She com- 
menced to cuss and damn and made it so hot in 
the neighborhood that the corn in the crib com- 
menced to pop; popped over thirty acres of 
ground and still at it, when a farmer, leading 
his horses to water next morning, seeing the 
popcorn still coming down, thought it was a 
snow storm and lay down and froze to death." 



I 



CHAPTER XIII. 
INCIDENTS ON POLICE DUTY. 



Sampoloc, Jan. 20, 1899. 
Every time a patrol goes down the street 
after dark, the dogs commence to bark, and the 
more he advances the more dogs he wakes up, 

66 



instead of being called "preservers of the 
peace" we ought to be called "destroyers of 
the peace." So Jack went down to the hos- 
pital and got a requisition for some strychnine, 
while I went over to the native market and 
confiscated some fresh meat. In a few days, 
business was so dog-gone interesting in the 
canine line that we were afraid to tell the 
captain what we had done as we originally in- 
tended to do. "Windy Bill" saw some natives 
pulling something across a blind alley, and, 
thinking about a murdered native, he ran up 
and found — a dead dog. Several natives came 
up and informed the captain about the curious 
actions of their dogs and Fletcher, who was 
corporal of the guard, was sent out to kill 
them. Ma's little poodle came out in front 
of the quarters, danced a hoe-down, and fell 
over dead. Robinson came in from guard 
and reported that a dog belonging to a Colo- 
rado captain had gone mad and he had killed 
it. Handscum came in from No. 4 patrol and 
said that, as before he was unable to walk 
down street on account of dogs, now he was 
able to walk on dead dogs, and reported that 
there were several down there that oug^t to 
be buried. 



67 



Tom Graham was on fatigue duty and came 
upstairs to clean our lamp. "Where do you 
keep it, in the coal scuttle, or the ice chest?" 
Handscum said, "I thought you were sick;" 
and Graham replied, "Oh, I refused to do 
heavy work, so they gave me a double dose of 
light duty." He then sat down to sew up his 
pants, and remarked, "If a man stays here long 
enough he will be able to make a suit of clothes 
from a silk handkerchief ; here is a pair of pants 
that I have taken six or eight pieces from to 
fix my hammock, and several bandages to fix 
McGinnis's face with, and I have yet got 
enough left to make two pair, after I have 
taken some pieces to clean my rifle with." 
Handscum, noticing the pants slipping dow^j 
over his hips, said, "Why don't you buy a paii 
of suspenders and brace up. Try and look likei 
a man again. Get a bicycle pump and fill out 
the seat of those trousers. What is the matter 
with you?" Graham answered, "Oh, I am just 
trying to find out what ails me. It can't be the 
gout, for a man has to go to New York to die 
to get that. It is not Bright's disease, for 
man must be worth fifty thousand dollars to 
have that. I think it must be love, for Samj 

68 



Jones says that love is something in the head 
which descends into the body and 'busts."' 

Manila, Dec. 27. 
Was on guard today and relieved Borhus 
who told me that an hour ago a Frenchman 
and an Englishman drove up to one of the 

* houses and stayed some time. The Englishman 
*was going to stay all night so the Frenchman 

* came out and told the native coachman to drive 
up town. He would not do so unless he was 

'paid for the use of the carriage in advance. 
This is where Borhus came into the game. 
He sided with the native and told the French- 
man to pay the man. This he declined to do, 
and passed some sincere and serious remarks 
about Americans in general and Borhus in 
particular. The result was that Borhus had 
him by the throat and was making him gurgle, 
when the Englishman, hearing the row, came 
out and paid the native, who, with the French- 
man, drove away, leaving Johnny Bull and 
Morbus standing in the road. The latter, 
thinking an apology was due the Englishman 
^for having his friend by the throat, remarked, 
*The man was drunk and would not pay the 

69 



driver." And to Borhus' surprise, the English- 
man replied, "Yes, I told the d — fool to do 
as the Americans told him to, or they would 
put a bullet into him, and instead of having 
me to settle his troubles he will have to settle 
them with God Almighty." 

Tom Graham came in today with his hat full 
of red hair, and throwing himself on the ham- 
mock declared he refused to go on patrol any 
more. 

Handscum said, "You must not use the 
word ^refuse' in the army, Tom. Say you're 
sick." 

Graham: "Well, I'm sick." 
Handscum: "What is the matter?" 
Graham : "I've a ringing noise in my head." 
Handscum: "That's because it's empty." 
Graham: "There's no noise in my head." 
Handscum : "That's because it's cracked." 
Graham: "Can you play checkers?" 
Handscum : "Yes." 
Graham: "Well, it's your move." 
Handscum : "Why don't you see the doctor, 
Tom?" 

Graham: "He can't cure hams or bacon, 
let alone love-sickness." 



70 



« 



Handscum: "Well, he is no farmer." 
Graham: "No, but the man who gave him 
his commission is/ 

As Tom got the last word he wore a smile 
like the tin plate on a coiffin and told us his 
troubles. John Dallam, our preacher soldier, 
and he were walking up the shady side of the 
street on patrol when they were hailed by a 
half-dozen Colorado boys who had somehow 
or other got possession of a keg of beer and 
insisted upon the patrol drinking also, and 
made their demands so strong that John Dal- 
lam gave them a little lecture on the evils of 
intemperance, the bad example it was to the 
natives, and the lack of honor and sobriety that 
were always expected from the American sol- 
dier. When he got done speaking, he took the 
keg and was pouring the beer upon the ground 
when the Colorado boys made a rush at him 
and soon there was something doing. Tom 
Graham had been a silent spectator during this 
period, his sympathies all with the Colorado 
boys. However, when Dallam was attacked, 
he fell in line and helped him go some. The 
patrol had clubs; the other side were a little 
dopy, and the result was that our boys got the 

71 



best of it. In the meantime, the keg had rolled 
over on one side and been forgotten and when 
remembered was empty. Handscum asked, 
"Why didn't you bring them to the calaboose?" 
Tom answered, "Dallam wanted to, but I ab- 
solutely refused to stand for it. I thought they 
were punished enough by losing all that good 
beer." 

The insurgents were getting very obstreper- 
ous, about this time, so we disarmed every 
native we found carrying weapons. They car- 
ried a chip on their shoulders, and acted as 
though the sun rose and set some place inside 
the Philippine uniform, that the goo-goo re- 
public was the whole universe, Manila a drop- 
sical wart on the horizon, and the American 
army of occupation infinitesimal flees, who ran 
out in the night-time to grab a bite and then 
crawled back to their holes to eat it. I re- 
member one day was down to the house for- 
merly used as a native recruiting station and 
found fifteen or twenty natives there, so we 
got to talking and one insurgent sergeant very 
soberly informed me that it took six Americans 
to be as good as one Filipino soldier. I po- 
litely replied, that he was mistaken, that the 

73 



rule ought to be reversed, but he could not 
see it that way, nor could I see through the 
spectacles of egotism that he was looking 
through. Was standing outside the house, 
feeling in my pockets for matches, when Ser- 
geant Joe Strachem came along with a detail 
of men. I told him the circumstances and what 
I was going to do, and he got angry, reminded 
me about the orders we get nearly every day 
now — ^to be careful not to provoke trouble with 
the natives, and put up such a strong talk that 
I went to quarters with him. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
A MARRIAGE IN THE ORIENT. 



Sampoloc, Dec. 29, 1898. 

Ran across Balbino last night, who is in a 
peck of trouble. It appears his son has just 
come in from the provinces to marry his 
sweetheart, who is a good looking native, 
twenty years of age, and aching to get married, 
but her parents were hostile and locked her 
up. The boy tried to get her away, so her 
father took her to the local president's house 

73 



and shut her up there. Old Balbino came up 
and told us, so Jack and I went over and took 
her from the old crocodile and left her at Bal- 
bino's and then went to quarters. The old 
fellow was waiting for us at the door next 
morning and said that the girl's father and 
friends had been to his place during the night 
and almost torn it down. Balbino, though an 
old rooster among the pullets, is no slouch 
when it comes to doing things. He had ex- 
pected this and had some friends conveniently 
near, so the invaders had been driven away, 
but he was afraid they would come back again. 

Jack and Balbino went to the priest to get 
a license, whilst I went down to the house, and 
it looked as though it had been through a cy- 
clone. Then I went to the girl's father and 
told him either give his consent to the marriage 
to the priest or else go to the calaboose for 
assaulting Balbino. He chose the former 
course, but even then the priest would not 
marry them, as the bans had not been pub- 
lished in church. 

Manila, Jan. 29. 

We saw three fires in the native district 
about midnight and learned that it was Bal- 

74 



bino, cooking food for the wedding tomorrow, 
and, as usual, was in trouble. It appears that 
it is the custom for the best man, or padrena, 
as he is called here, to pay the priest for per- 
forming the ceremony. Under Spanish rule, 
the amount was thirty dollars, but the native 
priests have reduced it to fourteen dollars and 
fifty cents. Jack, who knew nothing about the 
custom, had agreed to act as padrena, but 
when they went to him for the money to pay 
the priest he told them to go straight up. Bal- 
bino explained to me that Jack's name was 
down on the church books to act in that ca- 
pacity and the priest refused to marry the 
couple unless he was there. I saw Pablo, one 
of our mutual friends, and explained the cir- 
cumstances, and he dug up the money, and 
Jack, consenting to act as padrena, the mar- 
riage was duly solemnized in elegant style. 
The church was crowded, the wide doors 
thrown open and the natives filled half the 
churchyard. A dozen of Uncle Sam's nephews 
were there, and Jack, looking lonesome and un- 
comfortable, cast envious and appealing glances 
at them as he was led around during the cere- 
mony. After tying the knot, the priest spoke 

76 



of the present strained relations between the 
Filipinos and the Americans, while the na- 
tives stood like statues, greedily listening to 
him. Five days after this, the insurrection 
broke out. In the evening, a half dozen of 
us went down to the wedding supper at Bal- 
bino'5 house and among the different dishes of 
cocoanut, fish, etc., was one of fresh meat, very 
tender and nice, which we were helping our- 
selves to quite freely. Finally, Corey said, 
"What is this meat, Balbino?" who replied, 
"What, him? Oh, him dog." Jack and I had 
visions of strychnine, poisoned pups, etc., and 
I went out and had a case of seasickness and 
went to quarters not thinking loud but deep. 

Under Spanish rule, the friars had a tariff 
of marriage fees, but seldom used it, usually 
regulating the fee according to the size of the 
party's pocketbook. As the fee demanded was 
enormous, the natural result was that many 
got married "over the left," — co-habited un- 
der mutual vows, because they could not pay 
the price. 

Oleson, who used to bunk about six feet 
away from me, was taken away to the hospital 
four days ago, and died this morning from 

76 



smallpox. His body was wrapped in cloths, 
saturated with carbolic acid, all spare room in 
the coffin filled with lime, and buried. His 
personal effects, trunk, souvenirs, were all 
taken out into the yard and burned. A few 
days ago he was running around, now there 
is no trace that there ever was such a man, ex- 
cept in army records. The old National Guard 
ambulance, which we took from Minnesota, 
which for several months was the only one here, 
is now used as a smallpox ambulance. 



CHAPTER XV. 
THE PHILIPPINE OUTBREAK. 



Manila, Feb. 5, 1899. 
The expected happened about nine o'clock 
last night. The tension broke and the goo-goos 
shot into the town for a couple of hours, and 
then stopped. I was not on duty, so went to 
bed. I heard some kind of a noise, and, when 
fairly awake, Fletcher and myself were stand- 
ing at the window, clad in full suits of black 
hair, with our rifles in our hands, and the bul- 
lets were rattling dn the tin roof like peas in a 

77 



bladder. When this quieted down, about mid- 
night, Jack Huard and myself took our rifles 
and went out to the American trenches, oppo- 
site Block House 5, held by the insurgents. 
We went out on the Balic Balic road, past a 
strong guard who did not stop us, out to 
where our men used to be stationed, but found 
no one there, so thought we would go to the 
Sampoloc cemetery. In crossing the hill, the 
goo-goos fired a volley at us so unexpectedly 
that we both instinctively dropped; neither 
one was hurt, so we fired a few shots; then, 
thinking we were attracting too much atten- 
tion, stopped shooting. Just then, we could 
hear the old Springfields answering the Mausers 
from the cemetery and the firing was kept up 
until four o'clock; whenever we raised our 
heads we could see the flashes of fire in front 
of us. Then, we would burrow down again. 
We must have been too scared to run away. 
After about two hours, the fire slackened some, 
and we crawled backwards down the hill from 
the goo-goos and ran into a bunch of officers 
and a long line of American soldiers. It ap- 
pears our lines had been drawn back during the 
night so as to be sheltered by the hill, and the 

78 



cemetery used as an outpost, and there we 
had been lying for a couple of hours midway 
between the American and the Philippine lines. 
The officers asked us where we came from, who 
we were, and where we were going. We told 
them we were Minnesota policemen; had just 
come down the hill and were going to quarters 
— that we had had enough. They laughed and 
so did we, just to see whether we were able to 
do so or not. 

Got back to quarters and went to bed and 
in a few minutes "Windy Bill" came along and 
woke me up. He was in the hospital on the 
13th of August and had never been under fire 
and wanted me to go out with him. I refused, 
had enough, but he kept at me so persistently 
that in order to get rid of him I went along. 
We started out for Block House 5 again. On 
the outskirts of town and behind the American 
lines the insurgents were potting away from 
houses and trees, they had the correct range 
of a bare piece of road about two hundred yards 
long, and they sniped everything that crossed 
there. Bill and I laid down under a bank, got 
cold feet, and concluded to go out to Santa 
Mesa to the Nebraska Regiment. Just then a 



7© 



couple of Colorado boys came along with a 
boiler of coffee slung on a stick on their 
shoulders, one of them was singing about "The 
days of old and the days of gold, and the days 
of '49." A bullet hit the coffee boiler, and the 
coffee poured out as though from a teapot, but 
they kept going over the open piece of road, 
and we went after them. When we reached 
the American line we found Companies B, K 
and L of the Colorado Regiment formed in line 
and about to advance on Block House 5. Ma- 
jor Anderson ordered them to advance slowly. 
They did not know what slow was, and the 
Major, after trying in vain to hold them back, 
at last said in disgust, "Well, if you will go, 
go and give them h — .*' They went like dogs 
from a leash, leaving Bill and I, who were al- 
ready winded, to tag along in the rear. The in- 
surgents made their stand in the bushes in 
front of the block house and when retreating to 
rally on the block house the Americans were 
right in among them and kept them going. 
Colonel McCoy and Major Anderson and a few 
of the men were feeling good over the capture 
so we turned in and ate breakfast with them. 
To the right we could see Block House 6 



4 



80 



i 



in flames, having been taken and burned by the 
Nebraskans; to the left we saw the South Da- 
kotans come out of the woods in a long, brown 
line and advance across the open rice fields to 
attack Block House 3. One long fellow in front 
kept forging ahead, the farther he went the 
more distance he gained, and when the block 
house was reached the regiment was in the 
shape of a wedge, with the long man for the 
point. Bill and I then went down to Block 
House 3 and helped to fire a few volleys at the 
insurgents who were yet in the rice fields to the 
left of the block house. Shortly after this, the 
Pennsylvania Regiment came and attacked the 
Chinese hospital, to the left of Block House 3, 
held by the insurgents. They could not get 
inside the walls for a few minutes and kept 
running and swarming around like bees. Bill 
and I thought we ought to go down there, so 
we went and formed in with Company D, 
Tenth Pennsylvania, who were about to ad- 
vance in extended order to attack th» Chinese 
church. The building was of brick, built on 
a hill ; in front, where we had to advance, was 
a rice field ; to the left, were bushes and trees ; 
to the right, were graveyards, and to the right 

(6) 81 



of that La Loma church. We started up the 
rice fields with our skirmishers in front and 
got about half way there, when without a sec- 
ond's warning, they pumped a terrific volley 
into us from the graveyards and the church. 
We got orders to lie down and lay there for 
two hours in the hot sun, not able to fire a shot 
on account of our skirmishers lying in front. 
We watched the insurgent officers as they 
walked around on the church walls and graves, 
giving directions to their men, who were in- 
visible behind walls and graves. There were 
thousands of shots went over our heads all 
the time and one man seemed to have a grudge 
against me. He seemed to get nearer; the 
bullets came harder, directly in front, and filled 
my eyes with dust. Five shots would come 
with equal regularity, then a short time for 
loading, and then again. Finally, when my 
nerves were about all in, his shots ceased, 
though the others did not, and I fell asleep, 
then woke up, jumped to my feet and fell down 
again just as quick, for the ping of the Mauser 
makes a man know where he is at. Bill had 
a good laugh at me and in a short time fell 
asleep himself. 

8d 



In the meantime, two cannon from the Utah 
Battery had come up behind us and, firing 
over our heads, drove the insurgents out of 
the graveyards, so we flanked into there, and 
instead of going to the Chinese church, we 
now got orders to advance on Church De La 
Loma. We ran into another graveyard, with 
a wire fence about eight feet high, and when 
we got through that. Major Bell, chief of 
the staff to General Otis, shouted the war 
cry and started the charge, running in front 
with his hat waving over his head, and away 
we went, loading as we ran, dropping on one 
knee as we fired, cracking a joke or swear- 
ing a cuss as the case might be, drove the in- 
surgents out of the bushes and into full view 
on the bare hill top, and few went over that 
hill. At one place there were sixty dead goo- 
goos in that many square yards. We advanced 
toward the church from the front, and the 
South Dakota boys arrived just at that time 
from the flank, and as we went in at the front 
gate the insurgents went out at the rear to- 
ward Caloocan. The men here got orders to 
halt, so they shot at the goo-goos as long as 

88 



they were within range. Colonel Hawkins*, 
an old civil war veteran and colonel of the 
Pennsylvanias, was one of the first men at the 
church, and shortly afterwards fell over, 
winded. 

Major Bell now called for volunteers to go 
on a reconnoitering expedition toward Ca- 
loocan. Montgomery, Tenny, myself and a 
couple of South Dakota boys stepped out; he 
led us across a ravine, where, seeing an insur- 
gent firing at the men at the church, I dodged 
behind a bush and took a shot at him; that 
missed, then he pumped lead into the bush I 
was behind so energetically that I thought I 
would change bushes and get at him from an- 
other direction. He must have had the same 
idea, for he was running up the ravine, looking 
behind, and ran square into the arms of Mont- 
gomery who froze onto him. The Major took 
us to within rifle range of Caloocan; the in- 
surgents on our left being driven in front of 
the Kansas and Montana Regiments, pouring 
a flank fire into us, but the Major would not 
allow us to fire a shot in return. After we got 
so close to Caloocan that we could see the 



I 



*Died on transport, returning home. 
84 



stars in the Philippine flag, the Major, getting 
what information he wanted, returned; before 
we got back to the American line, and when 
the goo-goos were still potting at us, he sat 
down on a rice ridge and took our names and 
companies, and said if we got into any trouble 
through running away from our regiment with- 
out leave he would be very glad to straighten 
it out. It was now late in the afternoon, so 
we started back to Manila, tired out. Jack 
got out a couple of bottles of champagne that 
we had connected with, and gave one to me 
and the other to "Windy Bill," with the result 
that I went to bed and Bill ran away again. 

When Bill came back again, he, with many 
others from the different companies, were 
courtmartialed. These soldiers (that the men 
who would have liked to go with the regiment, 
but were prevented by business, family, and 
other reasons), called "mamma's pets," actually 
wanted to fight ; and when they fought without 
their officers and without orders they were 
courtmartialed. The better the company, the 
more men in disgrace. One day Company H 
had thirty-five lined up in column of fours, 
and marched up to the summary court to be 
dealt with by the officers. 

95 



f 



Manila, Feb. 7. 
The insurgents have been doing some pro- 
miscuous shooting in front of the Kansas Regi- 
ment, so Company C, of that regiment, had 
orders to advance and drive them back. About M\ 
twenty of the Minnesota boys had heard of the 
contemplated movement, so when Company C 
lined up it was one of the largest companies in 
the Eighth Army Corps. We advanced in 
columns of fours two hundred yards until we 
reached a cross-road, then spread out in skir- i| 
mish line and away we went after them, A 
dozen of us were on the main road to Caloocan, 
whilst the others advanced on each side of the 
road through the bushes. Soon we ran into 
four or five rows of houses and here they 
checked us for a few minutes till we could get i| 
them driven out, then we followed and ran 
up against their trenches, and got checked 
again. Then we learned that we had passed a 
number of them in the houses, for they com- 
menced to pepper us from behind. One-half 
the men faced about, then charged the houses 
and set them on fire, the goo-goos running out 
like rats from a sinking ship. Just then the 
Utah Battery came up, but could not pass the 



burning houses on account of the fire, so they 
unlimbered and shot over our heads. Then we 
charged the trenches and drove the goo-goos 
to the outskirts of Caloocan. Just then, the 
captain came from somewhere and made us 
halt. He was wounded in the hand, Lieutenant 
Alvord and several enlisted men were killed, 
and the way he got us out of that wood was 
a revelation. Attention, Count — Fours, Fours 
Right, Forward — March, Double Time, and 
away we went back down the road, the flames 
meeting over our heads and the Mauser bullets 
keeping time to the popping of burning bamboo. 
Jimmy Brown* was advancing through the 
bushes, running a shell game and skinning 
the natives, when he dropped into an old well 
and would doubtless have been drowned had 
Carlson not reached his gun down to help him 
climb up with. There was a green scum on the 
water and Jimmy was the maddest and most 
variegated looking Paddy outside of Old Erin. 

Manila, Feb. 23. 
For two weeks after the insurrection broke 
out we were kept busy being on guard or fa- 



*Beturned to the Philippines, was hrought back in a box, and if 
buried in Arlington cemetery. 



87 



tigue duty all the time. The insurgent officers 
yet in town were hunted down. American 
soldiers would take horses and carriages 
wherever they found them, use them as much 
as they needed to, then turn the horses loose, 
when the next soldier who needed them would 
take them, and so on. The streets were cleared 
at ten o'clock every night; after that time 
everyone was halted ; if they did not halt, they 
were shot. Nearly every night there have 
been some fires and shooting in town, but last 
night capped the climax. Was on guard and 
everything was quiet till midnight, when, all 
at once, fires started up in a dozen places across 
the swamp, in Tondo and Binonda, then yelling 
and shouting and an occasional explosion. The 
bursting of bamboo mingling with the volley- 
firing of Americans and insurgents, the shout- 
ing of the combatants, the roaring of the can- 
non, the dark, illuminated smoke stretching 
heavenward, made a sight impossible to de- 
scribe and never to be forgotten. The fighting 
and burning was restricted to those two dis- 
tricts, so we were not troubled at all. Next 
itiorning, Tim Enright and myself went down 
to Tonda and found it had gone up in smoke 

88 



during the night. The convent quarters of 
Company C yet stood as a sentinel in the wil- 
derness of ashes and still smoking ruins. The 
company had sallied out in the night to drive 
the insurgents back, the latter retreated and 
swung around and attacked the convent and 
the twenty men who were left to guard it. 
The fighting must have been desperate, for the 
dead Filipinos were lying in the road and in 
front of the gate, not four feet from the con- 
vent wall. Across the road the burial squad 
was digging holes, whilst other men were 
bringing in the dead goo-goos from different 
directions on carts. Walked down toward the 
outskirts of town and saw the barricades that 
the insurgents had built across the streets, and 
at one place there was a little square wall, three 
feet high, enclosed in there were ten good 
goo-goos, in the gray insurgent uniform, all 
shot in the head, some with Krags, making 
small holes, others with Springfields, which 
made a small hole in front and tore the whole 
back part of the head away where the bullet 
came out. 

About this time, we missed the frozen Aus- 
tralian beef and received so much canned sal- 



89 



mon that Tom Graham says he has scales all 
over his body; thinks in a short time he will 
be able to swim back to America, and Hand- 
scum says he has small bones coming out all 
over his body, so that he cannot take his under- 
shirt off without tearing it. Thinks he will 
stand on his head and hire out for a hat rack. 

When the insurgents were driven back, their 
friends in town got scared and buried their 
rifles, and, sometimes, money, in the ground, 
so, now, when the Americans see any fresh 
dirt they dig down to investigate. Carlson 
and Jack were out on guard one day when 
they saw some fresh soil under a native casa. 
Carlson crept under and dug down and got 
hold of a cloth and yelled out to Jack, "Come 
here; I've got it,'* and pulled out — a year-old 
baby with smallpox scales yet upon its face. 

Noticing too many people visiting a house 
across the street, No. 11, Jack and I thought 
we would look through it, found three natives, 
so I lined them up against the wall and Jack 
searched the house. In the attic, upstairs, he 
found a Mauser rifle, swords, ammunition, and 
insurgent uniforms, whilst a small hole, six 
inches square, was cut in the roof. Directly 

90 



across the street, about twenty yards across, 
was the room where Major Diggles and Captain 
Rowley lived. We took the arms along to 
quarters and the natives to the guardhouse. 
One peculiar feature about the natives is, that 
when there is a row in the street they all go 
inside and close the doors, instead of running 
to see what the trouble is, as the Americans 
do, and if the officers visit a house and find 
anything contraband there they never visit it 
again, avoid the place as though it had the 
plague. 

About this time Otto Raths and Dick Voss 
brought up the stump of a mast from the 
Spanish flagship Maria Christiana, which Dew- 
ey had sunk in the bay, and the boys are all 
getting part of it for souvenirs. 

Manila, March 10. 
At midnight, came off guard and was prowl- 
ing around the kitchen in the dark, trying to 
find something to eat, when I ran into Tim 
Enright on the same errand, who said, "I'll 
tell you what, Jack, those bandmen come over 
here every night and steal the guard's sup- 
per." He went on guard and I had just lain 

91 



down to sleep when Raths woke me and said 
there was shooting down on No. 4, so ran 
down there and saw Bedard, who, with En- 
right had been patrolling the street when they 
noticed the insurgents had cut the wires. En- 
right grabbed hold of an end, fell backward, 
and the live wire he held in his hand com- 
menced to sizzle, so Bedard threw rocks at the 
wire and broke it off and fired his gun to let 
us know. A woman sitting on a house-top 
opposite, asked what was the matter. Told 
her there was a man dead. She commenced 
wringing her hands, and said, "Oh, dear, I wish 
George were here. Can't I give him a drink 
of water?" Bill Cochran* and I carried him to 
quarters, rooted out a doctor from the Colo- 
rado Regiment, who pronounced him dead. 
We, then, took him out on the back porch 
and laid him out. We took the wire from his 
burnt fingers, washed the body, shaved the 
face, put on a white suit instead of the brown, 
and, with his curly, . auburn hair combed, he 
looked fine, resting in his black coffin, with a 
cross of flowers upon his heart. He was a 
Catholic, so we took him to the church across 



*At present on the police force in Minneapolis. 
92 



the way, where the native priest blessed and 
prayed for the poor lad's soul. The natives 
flocked inside, with wonder staring out of their 
eyes. They can't understand the Americans 
at all. At two o'clock we formed in line, 
the band in the lead, the firing squad of seven 
following, then the coffin in a hearse with gold 
trimmings, escorted on both sides by pall bear- 
ers in white gloves, then came the boys in 
columns of fours, and in the rear a carriage 
containing officers. On the way down, an 
American lady sent an armful of flowers to 
place on the grave. He was buried in Battery 
Knoll, a little place where Uncle Sam buried 
his nephews in a long trench, seven feet across 
and three hundred feet long, the coffins laid 
side by side and numbered. 



OS 



CHAPTER XVI. 
RELIEF FROM POLICE DUTY. 



Sampoloc, March 17, 1899. 
Since the Tonda outbreak, we have had it 
very quiet, the insurgents being driven from 
town, the other natives seem to be dazed and 
have not done much devilment for the last few 
weeks, and everything seems to have settled 
down. The district nowadays is about as 
quiet as Philadelphia on Sunday. Today we 
had a double celebration. The boys were cele- 
brating the 17th of Ireland when Major Big- 
gies came along and said we had been relieved 
from police duty and were to go to the front. 
Then pandemonium broke loose ; half the band 
got out and went up the street, piping, "St. 
Patrick's Day in the Morning," then the Irish 
contingent, consisting of the McCarrens, the 
McGinnises and the McMuds, decorated with 
green ribbon resurrected by Jimmy Brown, and 
led by Handscum, the Irish gunboat, came 
along, with Skip Wilson jigging in the rear. 
Then came Pup Collins, with his drum major 

04 



baton, Peanuts dancing, without using his feet, 
and all the rest of the Norwegians, Swedes, and 
Dutchmen, who could not keep quiet on an 
occasion like this. The sight was a cure for 
sore eyes, it warmed the cockles in a man's 
heart to see the boys so happy. The natives 
came running from the side streets to see the 
kangaroo procession ; looked puzzled for a few 
minutes, then looked at each other, and, tap- 
ping their foreheads, said, "Americano mucha 
loco.'^ 



CHAPTER XVII. 
BATTLE OF MARQUINO. 



Marquino, March 25, 1899. 
Orders came last night to pack up, get one 
hundred and sixty pounds of ammunition and 
three rays' rations and start at two o'clock 
in the morning. We marched about five miles 
to Company A, Colorado Regiment's camp, 
where we left our tents, knapsacks, and load- 
ed up more ammunition, and were then taken 
down the Marquino road, where a squad of 
eight men was left every twenty paces. The 

05 



night was as dark as a stack of black cats, the 
dust was suffocating, perfect silence was en- 
forced; when a stop was made each man in- 
variably bumped into the man ahead of him, 
and it was something to be remembered, those 
long, quiet files, plodding along, silent as the 
grave, when, at a word, they could have made 
as much noise as if all the imps of hell had 
broken loose. At daybreak, we advanced in 
extended order, privates and corporals in front, 
then the sergeants, and behind them the com- 
missioned officers. When we had gone a half 
mile, the insurgents opened up and gave us a 
sudden and vigorous reception, but we drove 
them back. They made another stand at a 
half ruined church, but, not caring for our 
company, they started on and we followed. 

It was interesting to watch the men in the 
chase, some of the officers insisted on their 
men firing by volleys, most of the boys were 
firing at will. Some would shoot as fast as 
they could load, others would go along and 
not fire a shot unless they could shoot to kill. 
''Champagne Harry" was about three minutes 
getting a bead on a goo-goo, but had no car- 
tridge in his gun, and when he pulled the trig- 

06 



ger he went straight up in the air. His gun 
kicks like a pile-driver, so he made prepara- 
tions accordingly, and when it did not kick at 
all, on account of having no load, his surprise 
was painful to behold. 

During the advance. Grimes, of Company I, 
was shot, the bullet going in behind the ear 
and coming out of the mouth. He was lying 
on the ground, vomiting blood, when the Utah 
Artillery surgeon, who had been temporarily 
detailed to our regiment, came along and de- 
clared, "He won't live fifteen minutes." Dr. 
Beck, who was sharpshooting on the right, saw 
him fall and, tearing open a first-aid package, 
plugged up the hole in the roof of his mouth. 
The action nearly choked Grimes so he coughed 
the cotton out and the hemorrhage commenced 
again. Once more, the doctor plugged the 
bullet hole and Grimes, mercifully fainting 
just then, he was enabled to stop the flow of 
blood, so Grimes was placed in the ambulance, 
then to the hospital, and is walking the streets 
of Minneapolis today. 

About ten o'clock, the whole line was halted 
and General Hall called for scouts, one man 
from each company of the First Batallion. He 

(7) 97 



showed us a map of the country and said for 
us to go find a certain road. We started out 
in front of the line in four directions, under 
command of an F company sergeant, and soon 
crossed the road we were looking for. Noticed 
something glint under a tree, and looking close, 
I saw an insurgent sentinel, standing looking 
at the long American line. I was to the left 
of the sergeant, so edged away to report to 
him, when I noticed him standing like a setter 
dog, and, following his gaze, saw, about two 
hundred yards away, about forty insurgents 
in trenches at the top of the hill, looking down 
at us. Why they did not shoot, I do not un- 
derstand, but we made a very dignified retreat 
and reported what we had seen to General Hall. 
The men, in the meantime, had got very thirsty 
and had no water; knew there was not any be- 
hind, so they went out in front looking for it. 
Peanuts and Graham had found a beautiful 
spring, and, whilst drinking, the goo-goos from 
the hill pumped a volley into them. Peanuts 
threw himself down on the ground and thought 
it best to lie there till the insurgents had got 
over their hurry, but Tom would not do that; 
he had left his gun behind and would not lie 

98 



down, so Peanuts, not wanting to see him 
filled full of holes, came back with him to where 
we were lying under shelter, the pair of them 
still quarreling, Tom, of course, getting the last 
word. "You blankety blank blank, you ought 
to be taken out of the army and put to a wet 
nurse." "Do you think I was going to stand 
out there and get shot without a gun?" Tom 
growled. Just then, Wyman ran in from the 
front of the line where he had been hunting 
water and cried out, "Where is B Company?" 
He had lived with us almost a year and did 
not recognize a soul. Sergeant Raths went 
out into the hail of bullets and pulled him in 
under cover. It was a noble action. Raths 
had been using his seargent's stripes to dis- 
cipline me with and I had some old scores laid 
up against him, but that action wiped them 
out. Peanuts gave Wyman some water and 
he soon came around again. 

In the meantime. General Hall sent the two 
Colorado companies around and attacked the 
insurgents on the flank and they broke and 
fled. Shortly after this, an order came to send 
thirty men from each company back to the 
Colorado camp for ammunition. We started 

99 



out. No one seemed to know in what direc- 
tion we lay from any place, and it appeared as 
though we had to walk twelve or fifteen miles 
over the ground that we had traversed in two 
hours in the morning. We hiked through the 
hot sun, fried out like mummies, our bodies 
parboiling in our own perspiration, till finally 
we arrived at the Colorado camp. When we 
left it in the morning it was deserted, now it 
was a rendezvous for ammunition trains, sup- 
ply wagons, and a hospital corps, bringing in 
wounded from the field, a telegraph office under 
a tree, and mules loaded with wire, ready to 
string out over the ground loose, so that as 
the commanding officer advances he is still 
in communication with Manila. Well, we got 
our ammunition, which was loaded on buffalo 
carts, and started out. Of course, there was 
no road, so we went straight across country. 
There are little ridges in the rice fields to hold 
the water, about a foot high ; every time a cart 
came to a ridge it would get stuck and we had 
to lift or push it over, then crossing ravines 
we had to pull and push and sweat and swear. 
Several buffaloes got ugly, ran away, and rolled 
in the water and the boys had to pull and tote 

100 



the ammunition up onto the bank. This work 
lasted till dark, and then it appeared our com- 
manding officer disappeared, or had not re- 
turned with us, and there we were left in the 
dark, with insurgents all around, our comrades 
possibly needing the ammunition, the men from 
different companies, all tired and worn out 
with their hard labor, and not a man knew 
whether we were going in the right direction 
or not. 

Finally, the boys came to the conclusion that 
we were not going right, so we wheeled around 
and started square across from the direction 
we had been traveling. Some went ahead and 
dug a path, others chopped down trees, others 
pushed on the carts, all cussed and quarreled 
to their hearts' content. I was so tired and 
worn out that I did not care whether we found 
camp or not, whether the insurgents got us 
or not, so I would lie down and rest at the 
stoppages and plod along behind the outfit 
when it was in motion. At last, one of the boys 
ran against the half ruined church we had 
passed in the morning and we knew our way 
from there. We arrived about nine o'clock. 
Jack had got some rice straw, so I rolled along- 

101 



side and went to sleep. About midnight the 
insurgents poured a volley into camp. Was 
sleeping on the outside of the company, but, 
somehow or other, when I heard the noise and 
before I was awake, I had jumped over Jack 
and was lying behind a small hillock where I 
remained till I got my wits together. The 
bullets came in showers and soon we heard the 
Krags of the Colorado men answering by vol- 
ley. We hustled out and formed in line in the 
darkness and soon Major Diggles gave the 
command, "Forward, Guide Center!" We 
could not see our hand in front of us let alone 
guide center, but that made no difference, we 
reached the Colorado boys just as their am- 
munition was expended, and the insurgents, 
hearing us coming, retreated in the darkness, 
swearing at us in Tagalog. Some of the Colo- 
rado boys were already out of ammunition 
when we arrived and were busy digging 
trenches with their bayonets for their com- 
rades. We lay there in skirmish line all night 
and at daybreak got orders to march to the 
place from whence we came thirty hours ago, 
and toward evening we might have been seen 
straggling back, tired, footsore, and hungry. 



but we would not have been anywhere else for 
the world. Here we rested twenty-four hours, 
and, next evening, we marched back to Manila 
and then out to Caloocan, about fifteen miles. 
We arrived there sometime after midnight and 
lay down in the ranks and slept on the ground 
till daylight. When we were chasing goo-goos 
at Marquino, the other regiments were advanc- 
ing on Mololos, the insurgent capital, and now 
we were brought around to act as reserve to 
that advance. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
IN THE RESERVE. 



Marilou, March 29, 1899. 
From Caloocan went to Marilou, where the 
South Dakota Regiment had such a hard fight 
yesterday. They lost three officers and ten 
men killed and twenty-one wounded at the 
bridge where we are located. The American 
dead and wounded were taken into Manila. 
The dead insurgents are lying around in all 
directions and in all manner of positions, bloat- 
ed, swollen up, and smelling like a charnal 

108 



house. I noticed several had their throats cut. 
We passed the burial squad coming up; the 
ground is hard; the dead goo-goos numerous, 
and in order to expedite the work someone jabs 
the dead bodies with a bayonet. The gas es- 
capes and so it does not need so large a hole. 
In the afternoon, the major loaded us up with 
one hundred and fifty rounds of ammunition 
and went on an expedition on the flank, the 
insurgents ran away and we were too tired — 
too footsore — to follow. We got into camp 
about dark and could not sleep on account of 
the bad smell from the dead bodies and the 
biting of the mosquitoes. Next day, we 
marched through Bocane and Bigaa and 
reached Guiguinto about dark, when we went 
into camp. The brick depot is filled with 
wounded men and others are coming in. One 
lady nurse is out here on the firing line. Her 
name is Mrs. Boynton. The engineer corps 
are making a temporary bridge for the wagons 
to cross over. The road is filled with blue 
army wagons, two four-horse and one six- 
horse ambulance, and a line of buffalo carts, 
a mile long. Here we got orders to go into 
camp and keep the line of railroad open be- 

104 



tween here and Marilou. The boys are about 
fagged, their shoes are worn out, some have 
nothing but the shoestrings left. The only 
way a number of the boys can move at all is 
towards the front. "Windy Bill" has more 
skin visible than his pantaloons cover. The 
major asked him what his pants were made of, 
and Bill remarked, "Fresh air, I guess." Sev- 
eral of the boys have no shirt, and, taking the 
company as a whole, Coxey's army would be 
a respectable aggregation compared to this. 
Aunty Bates still sits on her nest egg, com- 
placently waiting for somebody to send us 
something. The towns we passed through 
from Manila here have all been burned down, 
the rice piles still burning, the inhabitants have 
fled, and chicken and eggs are plentiful. 

Heenan and I were out with a scouting party 
when we came across a lot of liquors and cigars 
in a ricestack. We told the other boys, and 
Sergeant Hemphill, who was along, would not 
allow us to take any of the stuff. The boys 
made such a roar that he compromised by al- 
lowing us to take two bottles (we also stowed 
away several others) ; going to camp got 
thirsty, so sat down and drank one of them, and 

105 



then it developed that the other had disap- 
peared. Heenan, who had been carrying it, 
dropped behind and gave it to me. I emptied 
it into my canteen and went along as though 
it Was water. Finally, suspicion was directed 
against me, so I changed canteens with Heenan 
who had been searched, and was soon in a 
position to prove I was not the guilty party. 
We surprised them three times that day. First, 
when the bottles were found, then when they 
were lost, and, again, after supper, when we 
went around and gave the boys a drink. The 
bottle of cognac we made into a punch, and 
the one labelled "Pure Scotch Whisky" we 
opened and found so atrociously rank that we 
filled it with water and gave it to the major for 
a present. 

Bulucan, April 8. 
Captain Rowley and about twenty of us 
went down to Bulucan, a town of about eight 
thousand in the piping times of peace, but now 
the population is reduced to a few Chinamen, 
who run a beno factory, and a few natives, 
who are half dead with smallpox. We went 
through the town and not a shot was fired. 
The insurgent soldiers had been quartered in 

106 



the church and convent and we found their 
regimental chests, ammunition, band instru- 
ments, etc., just as they had left them. In one 
room was an immense amount of priest's robes 
and dresses of different descriptions, made of 
silk and satin, with gold and silver beading and 
trimmings. They were scattered over the 
floor and it looked as though all the priests on 
the island had come here and undressed and 
then ran away to the insurgent army, for not 
a blessed one was in sight. Six days after this 
we noticed in the **American" newspaper in 
Manila that Major Bell and a batallion of the 
Kansas Regiment had that day captured Bulu- 
can. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

MIDNIGHT ATTACK ON THE RAIL- 
ROAD. 



Guiguinto, April 10, 1899. 
At this time, the Minnesota Regiment was 
guarding the railroad between Marilou and 
Mololos, a distance of about fifteen miles. The 
companies were camped at Santa Isabel, Gui- 
guinto, Bigaa and Bocane, and the soldiers used 

107 



to patrol the track between the camps during 
the night. On each side of the track, just be- 
yond the range of the Americans' rifles were 
the insurgents. We had already had several 
skirmishes with them, when this night, they 
made a simultaneous attack on the camps, 
along the road. Company B got orders to 
m^arch to Santa Isabel where Company F was 
stationed; when we got there, they were just 
bringing in the body of Jesse Cole, whom the 
goo-goos had killed with boloes. Shortly af- 
terward, we heard firing from the direction of 
Bocane and it seemed to be coming closer all 
the time. Just then. Blend and I and two 
Company F boys, got orders to patrol into Mo- 
lolos. We had never been there before. The 
night was very dark, the fighting was coming 
up the line behind us uncomfortably near. We 
did not know but that some insurgents were 
also in front of us, but we got between the 
two streaks of rust and started out. When 
near Mololos, we heard an American pair of 
shoes coming along and halted them. It was 
General Wheaton, walking ahead of his staff 
and escort of thirty men from the Fourth Cav- 
alry. He asked how things were where we 

108 



came from and started away, pulling his beard. 
We went into Mololos, reported and started 
back again, and arrived at Santa Isabel about 
daybreak. Found that Company B had gone 
back to Guiguinto, so followed them, and were 
just in time to see their coattails whisking into 
the timber about a mile away, where they were 
chasing the insurgents. The insurgents had 
been shooting into the camp for several hours 
and when daylight came the boys got out the 
armoured car and made a charge and drove 
them back. They then pushed the car down 
to Bigaa and found our boys out chasing them 
over the rice fields and did not need any help, 
so they went down to Bocane and there helped 
drive them back. I was about an hour be- 
hind them and just as tired as they, so lay down 
and rested, watching the boys as they came 
in from the hike. Some were feeling fine, never 
walked straighter in their lives. Silent men 
were cracking jokes. Some were so sore-footed 
they were doubled up with pain, and others 
came plodding along, gritting their teeth and 
determined to stay for the big show. The in- 
surgents attacked the railroad at four different 
places. At one, they got possession of a build- 

100 



ing across the track from the camp. At an- 
other, they got into the kitchen and stole the 
eatables and filled the pans and tents with 
bullet holes, and, at Marilou, they stole the 
wagon train from an Oregon company, cut out 
an outpost of four men, killed, three dead, and 
stripped them all naked and decamped. 

Santa Maria, April 12. 
Started early this morning with the Minne- 
sota and Oregon Regiments and two cannon 
to pay the insurgents back in their own coin. 
We found them at Santa Maria, when they 
checked us for sometime, but when the artillery 
opened up they made tracks. We went over 
the entrenchments and through the town past 
the intrenched loopholed church and at the 
other side of town Major Bell, chief of the staff 
to General Otis, halted us and called for scouts, 
three from B and three from I companies, and 
then started us out ahead to stir up the hornets. 
The insurgents would keep potting at us and 
whenever we saw a good shot we would return 
the compliment. When on the top of a hill, 
an I Company man called me over to him and 
said, "Do you see that fellow over there with 

110 



the rifle?'' Told him I did. "Well, just watch 
me wing him/' He fired and a water buffalo, 
a hundred yards on this side fell over with his 
legs in the air. Well, the day was hot, the sun 
fierce, and the firing line came along so fast 
that we had to keep on a jog trot to keep ahead 
of them. The retreating insurgents were pot- 
ting us more or less all the time. We came to 
a small town, found it deserted, so kept going 
along till we came to a hill top and there saw 
the goo-goo army in full retreat. Major Bell* 
then called for volunteers, and eleven men 
stepped out and he exclaimed, "Let's cut out 
that ammunition train." And away we went, 
over streams, through bushes and ravines, till 
we came upon the usual accompaniment of a 
retreating army, buffalo carts filled with am- 
munition, wounded men, and supplies of all 
kinds. We cut the traces of the buffaloes and 
left the carts in the road. One whale of a 
buffalo lunged forward with one trace cut and 
upset a half dozen carts and when we thought 
a stampede was imminent they turned to and 
ate grass. During this time, the insurgent rear 
guard was potting at us for keeps. Then the 



♦Now Major General Bell, TT. S. A. 
Ill 



Major got a white rag, put it on a stick, and told 
us to follow him and be sure not to fire a shot. 
We started up the rice field and the farther we 
got the fiercer the bullets came. We were in 
the open, in a straight line, about fifty yards 
apart, the Major in the middle with his little 
white rag. An I Company man on the right, 
seeing six insurgents in a bunch firing at us, 
shot into them. The Major yelled at him to 
cease firing, but the soldier was out for blood 
and would not stop. He turned on the Major 
and replied, "What in h — 1 do you take me for? 
Do you think I am fool enough to stand there 
and let those sons-of — kill me?" The rest of 
us had stopped during this controversy, except 
one man on the left who kept walking up to- 
ward the insurgents in front. The Major just 
then caught sight of him and yelled to him to 
come back, but the soldier could not hear, so 
the Major left the man who persisted in shoot- 
ing and ran after the other escaped lunatic. 
We all turned in and started to shoot now, and 
sniped away whenever we saw them running 
from tree to tree. The Major came back with 
the soldier and as the case was now desperate, 
he stood up and told us where the best shots 

lis 



I 



were and we laid down on the rice ridges and 
sniped at them. We could not silence their 
fire, however, so the Major, seeing them all 
bunching directly in front of us, ordered us 
to volley fire and after we had shot probably 
a score of volleys there were but few scatter- 
ing replies. Asked the lunatic what he had 
been walking up to the insurgents for, and he 
said "There was an officer there, giving com- 
mands in English, and I wanted to have a look 
at him." We were now about fifteen miles from 
Bocane and our shoes, through fording the 
streams and drying in the hot sun, had con- 
tracted so that the shoestrings were bursting, 
so we went back and met the battalion coming 
to our aid, and everyone turned around and 
marched to Santa Maria where the rest of 
the regiment and the Oregons were waiting 
for us. They had found the clothing from the 
dead Oregon boys in the church and the whole 
town had gone up in smoke. From here, we 
marched to Bocane and then took the train to 
Guiguinto; half way there the train broke in 
two and we had to get out and hike the re- 
mainder of the way, arriving in camp accord- 
ing to our powers of endurance, some at six 

(8) 118 



o'clock and others at midnight. When we left 
camp here, three days ago, we had bushels of 
mangoes lying ripening under our bunks and 
chickens fattening in crates and tethered out 
by one leg, but when we came back we found 
the South Dakota boys had been doing guard 
duty in our absence, and had eaten up every 
blessed chicken in sight. When scouting be- 
yond Santa Maria, one soldier was "frisking" 
some of the buffalo carts when Major Bell, see- 
ing him, roasted him to a finish. Asked his 
name and regiment. Told him he was a dis- 
grace to the company and regiment and to the 
uniform he wore, and that if he did it again he 
would be turned over to his company com- 
m^ander for punishment. 



CHAPTER XX. 
IN THE HOSPITAL. 



Manila, April 30, 1899. 
Have been in the First Reserve Hospital ten 
days with opthamalia. This place was used by 
the Spaniards for a hospital and is invitingly 
cool and clean. The cots have mosquito net- 
ting and wire springs. Have four kinds of 



diets, heavy, light, liquor, and special. There 
are from fifteen to eighteen hundred men in 
the hospital all the time. It is the Eighth Army 
Corps' debating ground, the men from different 
regiments, sent down indiscriminately, here 
meet on common ground and discuss move- 
ments, tactics, the qualifications and character- 
istics of the various regiments and — officers. 
There are some, and the very large majority, 
that the men would die for — or fight for at the 
drop of the hat. There are a few that the com- 
mon, cheap, fifteen-doUars-per-month private 
looks down upon as he would on stinking fish. 

Grayson, the soldier from Company D, First 
Nebraskas, the man who fired the first shot on 
February fourth, the shot that rang around the 
world, was just leaving the ward as I went in. 

An Oregon Lieutenant in the ward was 
wounded in a peculiar manner. He was sta- 
tioned at Marilou, where there is not much 
shade, and the atmosphere was yet foul with 
the stench from the dead bodies, so in the 
middle of the day he would go five or six hun- 
dred yards from camp to a bunch of bamboo 
and enjoy the coolness of the shade along the 
river. One day he was sitting with his back 

115 



to the trees and his legs crossed in the air, 
reading a novel, when an insurgent sneaked 
up behind and fired his Mauser at the officer's 
head. The bullet missed the head, but hit the 
toe, and the native made tracks, followed by 
some shots from the Lieutenant's revolver. He 
swam the river and got away, leaving his hat, 
a bolo, and a hole through the Lieutenant's 
toe. About this time a number of lady nurses 
came from New York on the "Grant" and one 
was detailed to this ward. Why she was not 
detailed to the Lieutenant I have not been able 
to find out, for, though there were one hun- 
dred men in the ward, she passed three-fourths 
of the time with the Lieutenant and the other 
one-fourth with the ninety-nine privates. 

Lying across the ward from me was a young 
Utah Artillery bugler, who, through blowing 
the bugle when he had a sore on his lips, con- 
tracted blood poison. His face was black and 
blue and the pain was so intense that his groans 
and moans disturbed the other patients so 
much that he was moved to a veranda just out- 
side of the building. A lady nurse was detailed 
to care for him and she was so attentive and 
careful of him that I will never forget how the 

116 



poor little hero, his face black and blue and 
distorted with pain, his eyes swollen shut, 
would speak to her as gently and gratefully as 
a lover, whilst, between the words, he could not 
suppress the groans and cries of agony. The 
nurse was such a contrast to the one in our 
ward that when the poor fellow died, I inquired 
the lady's name, and was informed that her 
name was Miss Erickson, and that she was 
from St. Paul. 

I was down to the goo-goo hospital where 
our hospital stewards practice on the wounded 
Philippine prisoners who are fortunate in not 
being able to get away. When Colonel Ar- 
gulles and Lieutenant Bernal, two envoys from 
Aguinaldo, who came to Manila to discuss 
terms of peace with General Otis, came down 
and visited their unfortunate com-patriots and 
were agreeably surprised to see the humane 
manner in which the Americans treated their 
prisoners. They offered each man a dollar. 
Several took it, and seemed glad to get it, 
while others refused the money and turned 
their heads away. 

I also saw the Oregon boy who had been 
left for dead at the outposts of Marilou and it 

117 



appears he is going to recover in spite of the 
sixteen knife wonds. 

There are busy times at the front now. Each 
night, when the train comes in, a line of dead 
and wounded are brought up to the hospital. 
Colonel Stoltenburg, of the Nebraska Regi- 
ment, was brought in today with the stars and 
stripes lying across his body^ The dead are 
brought in on stretchers, their clothes covered 
with mud and perspiration, and sometimes 
blood, their feet tied together with a white rag, 
their hands tied across their breasts. Each 
body had a little red, white and blue tag, on 
which was written the poor fellow's name and 
regiment. Twenty-four dead and eighty-one 
wounded were brought in today. 



CHAPTER XXI. 
WITHOUT A FIELD OFFICER. 



Bocane, May 6, 1899. 
I was sitting around camp, wondering when 
we could bid Dewey goodbye, and slap Major 
Phelan, of San Francisco, on the back and tell 



118 



him he is a good fellow, when the Captain 
came along and said that the insurgents were 
expected to attack the four walls, all that is 
left standing of the town of B'ocane, so we 
climbed aboard the train and the engineer 
pulled the throttle. We had no headlight, and 
went like a blue streak of lightning for a few 
minutes, then a sudden stop and we climbed 
off at Bocane. We had not been stationed here 
before. It was eleven o'clock at night and so 
dark we could not tell in what direction the 
morning lay. The only time we could see 
anything was when the lightning lit up the 
neighborhood. Was an outpost and did not 
do a thing but claw mosquitoes all night. To- 
ward morning, an engine and a coach came 
through the darkness with a roar, a mile down 
the track the insurgents fired a volley into 
them. Next morning, we learned that the 
coach carried Major Diggles, shot through the 
head, to the First Reserve Hospital, where he 
died six days afterward. He was in command 
of the Companies of the Minnesota Regiment 
who were with Lawton's flying column when 
killed, and his death left the Regiment without 
a field officer at the front. Colonel Ames is 



119 



sick in Manila, Lieutenant Colonel Fredericks* 

is in the United States on sick leave, Major 

Bean is in charge of Bilibad Prison, and Major 

Diggles is dying. 

Bocane, May 7. 

Still at Bocane, on outpost duty. Last night 
about midnight heard Remington shots from 
the houses to right of track, but no bullets 
came over our heads. In the morning a 
German and two natives, a man and a woman, 
came from the village to the right. They had 
a pass from General Otis, ordering officers to 
furnish them a guard to go to Bocane to move 
some property. Smith, Thom and myself were 
detailed for that purpose. The native town 
was a mile from the track and on the way down 
I noticed the woman was greatly agitated, con- 
tinually wringing her hands and crying, 
"Gracios de Dios" (by the grace of God), so 
asked them what the trouble was, and the 
German said that they came out from Manila, 
the previous day, and went up into the bario 
(village) to stay with some friends. In the 
middle of the night, some ladrones came to 
the village where some good amigos live and 
robbed everybody they thought had any money. 

«Siiioo died at Bed Wing, 

120 



One house was barricaded, so they shot the 
place full of holes. The German and two na- 
tives contributed their mite, then the ladrones 
took the man and woman outside, stood the 
German against the wall of the casa, shot sev- 
eral holes through his white helmet, slit his 
clothes with their boloes, without cutting the 
skin, just to show how expert they were, and 
finally made him take his shoes off and threw 
him an old pair he could not wear at all. The 
native man seemed to be thick-headed or else 
had not got over his experience, but the woman 
was smart, talkative and stout, and she soon 
told me their little tale of woe, which was to 
the effect that before the insurrection broke 
out her husband and son were engaged in 
dealing in rice and tobacco at Bocane, where 
they both had large houses and warehouses, 
which are now, as well as every other building 
in town, burned down and only the stone 
foundations are left to show that houses once 
stood there. We went to the son's house first 
and they dug down where the house had stood 
until they came to a pit and took out two 
thousand dollars in silver, then went to the old 
folks' place and dug down until they came 

121 



to some planks. Moved them away and found 
underneath twelve earthenware jars filled v^ith 
silver money. Some of the money was wrapped 
in paper, which was black and discolored with 
fire or age. In this "cache," there was twelve 
thousand, making fourteen thousand dollars 
altogether, all in silver. It required twelve 
natives to carry it to the railroad, where it 
was put aboard the train and taken into Ma- 
nila. 

They also took a good looking native girl 
back with them, and her story was a sad one. 
Other natives that I asked for corroboration 
said it was not only true, but quite common. 
When the Americans advanced, the insurgents 
wanted her father to carry arms or give a 
certain amount of money to their cause, which 
he declined to do, so they caught him one night 
and cut his throat, ransacked the house and 
carried his wife and two daughters (this one 
not being at home) to the mountains where 
they still remain. 

Last night on the outpost, the mosquitoes 
or insects were so fierce that our faces are 
swollen up where we had been bitten. We 
had no doctor along, so Charlie Law and Tom 

123 



Graham went on the train to town for some 
medicine for us. They cut quite a dash going 
down the Escolta. Charlie used to be a nice 
Sunday School boy and a model of neatness 
when selling ten-dollar suits for twenty-five 
dollars at the Plymouth, but to associate that 
gentleman with the individual who walked 
alongside Tom Graham required quite a stretch 
of the imagination. He wore a dirty under- 
shirt and a pair of brown pants, one leg being 
gone at the knee and no socks, and a pair of 
old shoes, cut into strips for the convenience 
of the dobie itch. He had a dinky hat, hanging 
on a dozen hairs, his beard grew all over his 
face and was about four inches long, and his 
eyes swollen shut with the poison. By his 
side marched Tom Graham, typical son of 
Old Erin, whose red Galway whiskers bristled 
straight out from each side of his comical 
Irish face, and his eyes swollen so that they 
looked like gimlet holes flashing at the people 
who stared at them as they marched along. 
Finally, he said to Charlie, "Look ! Everybody 
is stopping to look at us," and Charlie an- 
swered, "D — n them, let them look. Am I to 
blame if they never saw an honest man be- 

128 



fore?" They went to Major Fitzgerald to get 
some medicine. He offered them the use of 
his bathroom and the gift of some underwear, 
but Charlie replied, "D — n the underwear, give 
us some medicine." 



CHAPTER XXn. 
ON OUTPOST DUTY. 



Guiguinto, May 12, 1899. 

Was on commissary detail today and got 
orders to move to Guiguinto. Have been on 
outpost five nights out of seven. This is the 
night I am not, and it is a huge satisfaction to 
anticipate a good night's rest, for the sun is 
not so hot nor the mosquitoes so large at Gui- 
guinto. 

Yesterday, was out with McKeever on guard 
and he thought he would swim across the 
river and burn up a rice stack, so went and 
made a blaze and started back, when bum, bum, 
behind him, and McKeever started out for dear 
life. When near the bank of the river, a large 
explosion shook the earth and McKeever dived 
into the water and did not come up till he 

124 



reached the other side. It appears the insur- 
gents had some ammunition stored in the stack 
and as the fire reached it the cartridges ex- 
ploded. McKeever could not see what the 
trouble was and thought the natives were after 
him. When the whole box of cartridges ex- 
ploded he thought the whole insurgent army 
had opened upon him and the desperate efforts 
he made to annihilate space was something that 
ought to be seen to be appreciated. 

Guiguinto, May 18. 
The outposts now are not sent out till after 
dark and brought in just before daybreak. Six 
men compose an outpost, which is divided into 
reliefs, two men in each relief. It appears 
Captain McQuade is in the course of seniority 
acting Major, and last night made the men line 
up and have guard mount in the dark before 
going on outpost. It was so dark the inspecting 
officer could not see a box car, five feet away, 
let alone the rust on a gun. The corporals in 
charge of outposts got instructions that no 
man should be allowed to load his gun until 
he arrived on outpost and then only at the 
corporal's command, and on no account was a 

196 



man to load his magazine. This would be fine 
on Nicollet Avenue, but when we remember 
this is the enemies' country, that the outpost 
is supposed to be secret and unseen, that the 
enemies' chief modes of attack are surprises 
and ambuscades, then we wonder why men 
should be stuck out in the rice swamps with 
guns and no cartridges in them and have a 
decoy corporal hallooing for the wolves to 
come to the lambs. 

In the afternoon, eight of us were loaded 
down with two hundred rounds of ammunition 
and three days' rations, and ordered to Calum- 
pit, where we learned we had to herd several 
hundred Chinamen who were busy putting to- 
gether the track that the insurgents had torn 
up. This is the place where Privates White and 
Twombly, of the Kansas Regiment, swam the 
river in face of the enemies' fire, and where 
Colonel Funston gained his brigadier's straps. 
The whole town is one mass of excavation and 
entrenchments, looks as though they had tried 
to turn it the other side up. The insurgents 
tore up the railroad track from here to Balwag. 
At the latter place, they let down one span 
of the iron bridge into the river. They used 

136 



the railroad rails as a cover for the top and 
front of their trenches. They unriveted boil- 
ers from engines and placed them in their half 
circular form over the trenches, leaving an 
opening four inches wide in front to shoot 
through. The top of the trench was furrowed 
with bullets, whilst the dents in the boiler at 
the rear showed that our boys had shot through 
that four-inch hole; — silent testimonials of the 
accuracy of the aim of the American Volun- 
teers. 

The whole town is burned down. Near the 
bridge is a huge pile of rice that has been burn- 
ing two weeks and at the present time is twenty 
feet high, forty feet across the top and one 
hundred and fifty across the base. Near where 
we were working is the body of a dead insur- 
gent in an awful state of decomposition. He 
must have crawled into the bushes when 
wounded and was not found by the burial 
squad and now it is impossible to get near him 
on account of the stench. 



127 



CHAPTER XXIIL 
"JOB'S COMFORTERS" IN CAMP. 



Had been troubled with boils when I came 
up here, and now they are getting so bad 
that I cannot keep track of the Chinks any 
more. They all look alike to me. The only 
way we could be sure we had them was to 
count them once in a while. If we came within 
a dozen or twenty we were doing well. A con- 
tractor furnished them to the government at 
so much per. 

Went down to the Third Artillery doctor, 
who looked at my boils and said, "Why, they 
are not boils ; they are abscesses," and told me 
to go to quarters and poultice them. Well, I 
was not sure where my quarters were, but liked 
Guiguinto best, so went down there and when 
Doctor Law came around I presented myself 
and my troubles to him. That was just in his 
line. Out came the lancet and he made a jab 
at me; then pinched the core out with his 
finger and thumb, then another jab and he 
pinched the core out. Then another one; it 

128 



was too green; would not come, so I fainted 
away. Four days later it burst and I enjoyed 
great satisfaction in cheating the doctor out of 
the pleasure of jabbing me again. 

June 2. 

Jack has a boil on his hand and thought it 
about ripe. We had no doctor, so borrowed 
Cole's pocket knife, tied a piece of wood on 
each side of the blade, an eighth of an inch 
from the point. I held his hand flat on the 
table with one hand, with the other I held the 
point of the knife on the boil whilst Jack hit 
it with the heel of his shoe. He must have 
struck too hard for the tent was not large 
enough to hold him. Bill Moore came running 
up and, looking at the boil, said, "What, are 
you busting a boil?" Jack replied, weakly, 
"No, we are making an apple pie." The per- 
formance reminded me of the man who tied 
his tooth to the door and then told his wife 
to open it. 

On June 7th, Worthington, of H. Company, 
walked away from camp and has not been seen 
since ; two days later James Walsh, of L Com- 
pany, on his way to his Company, was seen 
at Caloocan and then dropped out of existence. 

(9) 129 



As the Americans only hold the territory that 
they cover with the range of their rifles these 
men are either murdered or taken prisoners. 

From Guiguinto, we moved into a camp on 
the rice fields between Bocane and Marilou, 
where each man started to make himself as 
comfortable as possible. Some would go to 
a native casa and taking the roof off bodily 
would place it over their own tent. Others went 
to the burned depot and got tin roofing. Some 
used native matting and others bare tents. 
During the day the place would look deserted, 
about train time the unkempt, unshaven mortals 
who composed this Coxey's Army would be 
found sitting along the track, concocting pipe 
stories to exchange for commissary goods and 
making a show of feet, some vicious, some 
cold, others covered with dobie itch, poison, 
sores, bruises, or blisters, and they would look 
at the well-groomed, fresh-looking, well- 
dressed regulars going out on the train to the 
front and think long, deep thinks. We got 
mail every three or four weeks, every mail day 
was just like a Sunday, and a Sunday without 
mail was just like another day. Jack's father 
used to send us all the illustrated weeklies, 

180 



and our tent was used as a reading-room. The 
boys who had trouble with non-coms or non- 
combatants were always sure of sympathy 
there. The nights have been as black as ink 
lately and the mosquitoes ravenous. We go 
to bed with the blanket tied around our ankles 
and neck and then the mosquitoes will get 
into bed and drive us out. The natives would 
rather fight than eat, rather tell lies than the 
truth, the only thing that stays with a man 
is his appetite and that would leave him if 
he did not separate himself from his fifteen 
dollars per to help keep body and soul together. 
We have baseball games in the cool of the 
evening, when the players get on the diamond 
and the rooters on the grandstand trenches; 
it was an even bet which one worked the hard- 
est. One evening, "Windy Bill" hit Meggison 
in the face with the ball and knocked him sense- 
less. As he did not come around, we placed 
him on a hand car and pumped him down to 
Marilou to the doctor ; shortly after that Wor- 
den, trying to make a base, stepped into a hole 
and broke his leg, and was taken to the hos- 
pital. That settled it. Goodbye, baseball, 
goodbye. 

131 



During a rough house this afternoon, Tom 
Graham, who was sleeping, was hit in the face 
with a ripe mango. His name was on the list 
for outpost duty, so he went to the top sergeant 
and said he was sick — sick with what? Want 
of sleep. Well, we had no doctor, so had to 
take Tom's word for it, so he felt good and 
Snyder and he got into an argument. 

Snyder asked, "Do you believe these people 
are capable of self-government? Do you think 
they can be taught to govern themselves?" 

And Tom replied, "Why shouldn't they ? They 
are smarter than the white Crackers in the 
Southern states and have been taught nothing. 
Just look at them. They won't eat hard-tack. 
They won't eat pork and beans. Why, man, 
do you think they have to eat a white man's 
food in order to learn how to govern them- 
selves?" 

The sophistry of this argument staggered 
Snyder for a minute, then he came back : 

"You remind me of a Cracker yourself." 

"Me? Why?" Tom snapped out. 

"Because you are made of Graham." 

When Tom came out of his trance, he deliv- 
ered himself of the following : 

133 



I 



"My friend, Grover Cleveland, when he got 
struck by lightning the second time, having 
boils on his seat of judgment and not being 
troubled with military lockjaw, was satisfied 
to pull down the flag at Honolulu, and then 
the United States was bounded by the Atlantic 
and Pacific Oceans, but, now, by purchase, 
diplomacy, and the benevolent assimilation of 
the goo-goos, by shooting civilization into them 
with Krag-Jorgensons, we have developed so 
that we are bounded on the north by the North 
Pole, on the south by the Southern Cross, on 
the west by the day of judgment, and on the 
east by George Dewey. That may be here, 
there, or any place, where George's coattails 
are flapping in the breeze ; sometimes dropping 
a shell into a prayer meeting, again training 
shrapnel to climb trees to get sharpshooters, 
to the inconvenience of the goo-goo army and 
the satisfaction of the American soldier, who 
stops thinking of home and mother long enough 
to roll a wad of tobacco from one side of his 
mouth to the other, and mutter a string of pro- 
fanity that usually finishes with the sentiment, 
'Well done, by George.' " 

For convenience sake, the boys speak of 



188 



Malacayan as "Mike Ryans," St. Pedro Ma- 
carte at "St. Peter McCarty," and the natives 
as the "O'Hooleys." Snyder remarked they 
must be Irish, and Tom Graham said, "Yes, 
they are, they're smoked Irish." 

Emory, the Owl, had a fire in his casa, smok- 
ing mosquitoes out, when Manning came along 
and dropped a handful of powder and a couple 
of cartridges into the fire. The result was 
startling. Flames oozed out from every crevice 
and the Owl came out with murder in his eye, 
looking for the instigator of the outrage. He 
made quite a contrast to the Emory who en- 
listed in Minneapolis, with a suit of store 
clothes and a white wide collar on, that looked 
like the white-washed walls around a lunatic 
asylum, and was so high he had to jump up 
to look over it. Tonight he still wears a neck 
collar and a pair of shoes. 

Peanuts was telling about the Indian who 
said, "White man heap big fool, build big fire, 
go long ways off, Indian make small fire, sit 
astride it." So the Owl, after listening for 
some time, went and built a small smudge and 
was alternately rubbing his eyes and keeping 
the mosquitoes from pecking his bald head 



184 



d 



when Priebe came along and dropped the top 
of the casa on top of him. Priebe started out 
when he saw the damage he had done. The 
Owl pulled himself together, grabbed a club 
and, meeting Priebe coming around a corner, 
struck and knocked him senseless. We pulled 
him into a tent and worked over him and, when 
he came to and remembered the circumstances, 
started to grin. We felt relieved. Had made 
no excitement about the affair ; the officers did 
not know about it, so no one was arrested. 

The dogs in this neighborhood are getting 
desperate with hunger. Now that the natives 
cannot keep the Yankee pigs back, the canines 
are sorrowing for the lost cause and meet 
nightly near our camp and sing the doxology. 
Frequently a little pup or small dog would get 
mixed up with the larger ones, seeking con- 
solation in their mutual distress and hunger. 
Instead of giving the little fellow the glad 
hand, the large ones would start and chase the 
little fellow till he is played out and then turn 
to and eat him up. They seem to have become 
Americanized to some extent at least. The big 
fish eat up the little ones, dog-gone monopo- 
lists. 



186 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
THE RAINY SEASON. 



July 15, 1899. 
As the rainy season has commenced, we were 
marched down to the Convent De La Lum- 
boid into winter quarters. This is a large stone 
building, situated one mile from the track, 
midway between Bocane and Marilou. The 
walls are stone, three feet wide, with a red 
tile roof. It was used by the Spaniards for a 
convent, by the Filipinos for a hospital, and 
by the Americans for a barracks. Was up here 
a week ago and found the building full of old 
bamboo bunks, insurgents' uniforms, bloody 
bandages, the walls smattered with blood, and 
on the floor lay several dead bodies, or rather 
what the dogs had left of them, and what the 
dogs had not got the maggots had. Four 
Companies are stationed here, H, C, I and B. 
We were the last Company into quarters, so 
got the room the dead bodies had been lying in. 
This was the chapel, a beautiful room, forty 
feet high, finished in white and gold. The 

136 



bones had been swept out, but the blood had 
soaked into the boards and the hair was lying 
around. Many of the men could not sleep on 
the floor with their noses near the blood, so 
they passed the night wandering around, like 
the lost tribes of Israel. Next morning. Pea- 
nuts went down to the hospital and stole some 
carbolic acid and a pailful of lime, and the at- 
mosphere was soon healthier, though not pleas- 
ant. 

We get better food here and they tell us it 
is from the regimental fund, so that settled the 
question — we have a fund, after all. 

July 20. 

We now have guardmount and dress parade 
in the evening. Last night, when the com- 
mand was given, "Officers, Center March," a 
number of the boys, led by Frank Campbell, 
whistled the "Rogues' March," as the officers 
marched up to report to the Battalion Com- 
mander, whilst the boys who could not whistle 
hallooed out, "National Guard." 

Out of one thousand one hundred wounded 
men in the First Reserve Hospital, eight hun- 
dred and twenty were wounded in the limbs 
and but three required amputation, two of the 

137 



thigh and one of the shoulder. This is a hand- 
some testimonial to the skill and intelligence 
of Surgeon Major Fitzgerald and his corps of 
assistants. The Major was detailed from the 
Thirteenth Minnesota and placed in charge 
of the surgical department of the First Re- 
serve Hospital, and is as well known to the 
other regiments, comprising the Eighth Army 
Corps, as he is to his own. 

On account of the large number of sick and 
wounded in the First Reserve Hospital, it was 
decided to have a regimental hospital at Ma- 
late, which was placed in charge of Dr. Beck, 
of Company I. The rent of the building, pro- 
visions, extra medicine, etc., was paid from the 
regimental fund, the number of patients ranged 
from forty to seventy-five, and it is a note- 
worthy fact, though not mentioned in the offi- 
cial histories of the Regiment, that during the 
five months he was in charge, with an average 
of fifty patients per day, not a single man died. ■ 
In addition to the excellent success he had in 
curing the sick, the doctor earned the admira- 
tion of the Regiment by the pugnacity he used 
in chasing out cold feet. He would not read 
letters from influential parties, did not have an 

188 



itching palm, nor even respected shoulder 
straps. When a man was able to eat three 
square meals per day he had to go out to the 
front. 

The regimental Chaplain came down from 
Manila one day and the following conversation 
ensued : 

Cressy: "What time do you have break- 
fast?" 

Beck: "Seven o'clock." 

Cressy: "You have dinner about twelve, 
I suppose?" 

Beck: "Between twelve and one." 

Cressy: "And supper about six?" 

Beck: "Yes." 

Cressy: "Well, I will try and get down 
about those times." 

Beck: "You will?" 

Cressy: "Yes." 

Beck: "Yes, you will. Well, you won't. 
Do you take this for a boarding house? This 
is no free lunch room for officers. The gov- 
ernment pays you good money to pay for your 
board — don't come here sponging on sick men." 

Some time after this. Captain McQuade and 
Lieutenant Chambers drifted into the ward, 

180 



each man with an elegant skate on. The 
doctor, seeing his patients disturbed and not- 
ing the condition of the officers, called out, 
"Here, you, what are you doing here?" They 
replied, "Oh, we are just going to lie down and 
have a sleep." The doctor roared back, "Well, 
you don't sleep here. Do you think this is a 
sanitarium? Do you think I am running a 
Keeley Institute here? Get out or I'll throw 
you out." 

Ten of us, under Sergeant Phillips, of C 
Company, went on outpost at Marilou this eve- 
ning. It rained all the way down and we got 
as wet as drowned rats. Instead of keeping us 
out on the rice fields as our non-coms would 
have done, this man (may his tribe increase!) 
took us to the brick supply house, placed a 
guard at each door, lit a large fire and played 
cards all night. Williams and I had the first 
relief. Noticed a small stream running along 
the track, about fourteen inches wide, when I 
went on guard. When I was relieved it was a 
gully, twenty feet across and eight or ten feet 
deep. Next morning, we were supposed to go 
on a scouting expedition, but in this case it 
was a straight bee-line to quarters. It has 

140 



rained so fast and heavy that the road and sur- 
rounding country is covered with water and 
we could no more see the road than we could 
fly. Rain has been falling steadily now for 
eighty-four hours. It is impossible to dry a 
man's clothes from the time he comes off guard 
till he is called on again. Some of the boys 
take their shirts off and go around with a 
blanket round them like an Indian squaw. 
Tom Graham remarked, whilst taking his shirt 
off, "The reason an Irishman always smokes 
a short pipe is because he can take his shirt 
off without taking the pipe out of his mouth." 

Half way between the railroad and the con- 
vent we passed the buff alo carts with provisions, 
stuck in the mud, and a score of soldiers, with 
nothing on but a pair of pants, doubled up to 
the knees, a dozen Chinamen and as many 
water buffaloes were making herculean ef- 
forts to get the carts, which were almost out 
of sight in the water, back to camp. We ex- 
pect soon to see the sentinels going around on 
stilts or else carrying anchors instead of guns. 
A man ought to be web-footed to live here. 

Rainfall from the "American** newspaper of 
July 25, 1899, printed in Manila: 

141 



Inches. 

Rainfall, July 18 6.67 

Rainfall, July 19 9.98 

Rainfall, July 20 5.82 

Rainfall, July 21 1.14 

Total for four days 23.61 

Rainfall for previous days in July 12.08 

Total for 21 days of July 35.69 

We were relieved today by Companies M 
and G, of the Sixteenth Regulars, one hundred 
and twelve men strong. Our companies have 
from twenty-five to forty-five men on duty. 
But sneaking through blind alleys after crooked 
googoos, double-timing across country under 
tropical skies, going hungry several days at 
a stretch, lying in trenches soaked to the skin, 
and pushing buffalo carts across country has 
reduced the companies until there are only 
from one-fourth to one-half the men doing 
duty. As soon as we arrived in Manila, the 
orders came for no soldier to leave quarters 
— then there was a row. Several of the boys 
were placed under arrest and the others made it 
so interesting for the commanding officers that 

142 



finally permission came so that the boys, after 
being five months at the front, were grudgingly 
allowed to go outside to buy themselves some- 
thing to eat. 

This was our first start toward home and 
that night the whole company could have been 
heard swelling the chorus : 

Home, boys, home, it's home you ought to be, 

Home, boys, home, back in God's country. 

Where the ash and the oak and the budding willow 

tree, 
Are all growing green, back in North Americkee. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



A SHORT HISTORY OF THE PHILIP- 
PINES. 



The Philippine Islands were discovered by 
Magellan, a Portuguese, who took possession 
in the name of the King of Spain. For two 
hundred years the Spanish Colony of the Phil- 
ippines was governed from Mexico. 

In 1574, Li-ma-hong, the Chinese pirate, at- 
tacked Manila, but was forced back. He then 
went to the north of the island, sacked and 
burned a Filipino village, then settled down 

143 



and built joss houses, planted crops and was 
carving out a little kingdom for himself, when 
a war junk, sent by the Emperor of China, ar- 
rived in pursuit of him. The Spaniards joined 
forces with the Chinks and the pirate was at- 
tacked by land and sea. He offered his sol- 
diers as a bait, and when the enemy was busy 
with them he escaped to sea with his junks. 
The soldiers on shore, instead of laying down 
their arms and becoming a willing sacrifice, 
kept going, forced themselves inward and 
* joined the Igorotes, and doubtless the pirate 
blood, thus injected into that tribe, has had 
something to do with their unrelenting hos- 
tility to the Spaniards. They never were con- 
quered, and at the time the Americans arrived 
on the Island did not and had never recognized 
Spanish rule. 

In 1590, the wall of Manila was built, which, m 
though covered with moss, is still in a good 
state of preservation. It is thirty feet in 
width, extends from shore to shore, with a 
moat to flood with water in front of the wall. 
There are five gates in the wall with a draw- 
bridge attachment. When the draw-bridges 
are up, and the moat filled with water, the city 

144 



of Manila is virtually an island and provided 
the beseiger had no cannon would have been a 
hard proposition to go against. 

In 1599, the Spaniards attempted to occupy 
Mindanao and the Sulu Islands. The Mo- 
hammedans gained the first battle, the Gov- 
ernor-General was killed and the expedition 
was a failure. It was an unfortunate affair; it 
aroused the hatred and hostility of the Moro 
pirates, and for two hundred years they robbed 
and sacked the Spanish settlements, burning 
the villages and carrying the inhabitants into 
slavery. 

In 1603, two Chinese mandarins came to the 
Islands in pursuit of gold they had heard was 
to be found near Cavite. After they departed, 
the Spaniards were afraid of an attack from 
China. The Chinese in Manila were afraid of 
the warlike preparations made by the Span- 
iards, and the result was that the Chinese at- 
tacked the Spaniards in Tonda and Binonda. 
The battle raged all day long. Nearly all of 
the Spaniards were killed, no quarter was giv- 
en, and at last the Chinese broke and fled to- 
ward the interior, leaving twenty-five thousand 
dead behind them. 

(10) 146 



In 1633, the Emperor of Japan, angered by 
the efforts of the friars to convert his people, 
and grasping the fact that Spain's mode of con- 
quest was to send the friars to spread religion, 
and then soldiers to protect the friars and their 
converts, became alarmed and ordered the 
friars back to Manila. They refused to go, so 
he seized twenty-six of the Franciscan friars, 
cut off their noses and ears, placed them in 
carts, and carried them from town to town on 
exhibition, and at Nagasaki the twenty-six 
were crucified and stabbed to death. That did 
not deter others from coming, however, and 
they were promptly burned to death. The Em- 
peror then loaded up a ship-load of one-hun- 
dred and fifty lepers and sent them as a pres- 
ent to the Archbishop of Manila, with the ad- 
vice that as the friars seemed to love the Japs 
so well he sent them so that the friars could 
have their loved ones at home. 

In 1634, the Chinese, goaded by oppression, 
rose in rebellion, and would have won out had 
not the natives sided with the Spaniards. 

In 1645, an earthquake came along and 
destroyed every public building in Manila, 
with the exception of one monastery and two 

146 



churches. Over six hundred people were killed. 
The Spaniards then forced the natives into 
military service and compelled them to work 
on the arsenal at Cavite. Instead of building 
the arsenal, they revolted, and many battles 
were fought. The Spaniards carried on the 
war with savage cruelty, and broke up the re- 
bellion. The Philippine leader, Sumoroy, es- 
caped, so they raided his home, and tortured 
his mother to death. They then, by torture, 
compelled his soldiers to betray him, and they 
cut his head off and stuck it on a pole, and 
carried it around as a sample of what others 
might expect. 

In 1775, a law was passed compelling all Chi- 
nese to be baptized into the Catholic Church. 
About two thousand did not care for that kind 
of religion, so were driven out of the country. 
That resulted in a deficit in the taxes of $30,- 
000 per annum. 

In 1754, a volcano broke out on Luzon, and 
kept busy for six months. The towns of Taal, 
Sala, Lipa and Sananan were buried entirely, 
and towns of fifteen miles distant were serious- 
ly damaged, while ashes fell at Manila thirty- 
four miles away. 

147 



In 1755, the Spaniards started out to subdue 
or exterminate the Igorotes. Their villages 
were burned and men, women and children 
killed without mercy, but they would not sub- 
mit. The government then offered to those 
who would accept the Catholic religion a free 
pardon, and to be exempt from tax or tribute 
the rest of their lives, but the offer was not 
accepted. 

In 1762, the British captured Manila, and a 
year later, under the Treaty of Paris, restored 
it to the Spaniards again. 

In 1765, a quarrel arose between the Jesuits 
and Augustine Friars, each accusing the other 
of cruelty to the natives and of interfering 
with the reins of government. Two years lat«^| 
er the Jesuits were expelled by the Pope from 
the island, stayed away ninety-two years, and 
in 1859 returned. 

In 1781 the growing and selling of tobacco 
was made a government monopoly; no man 
could grow or sell a leaf of tobacco without i 
asking permission of the government. If he 
refused to grow tobacco on his land for three 
successive years the land was taken from him 
and given to some one else. 

148 



John Foreman, in his book, "Philippine 
Islands," describes the condition of the native 
under government monopoly. "From sunrise 
to sunset the native grower was subject to 
domiciliary search for concealed tobacco — ^his 
trunks, his furniture and every nook and 
corner of his dwelling were ransacked. He and 
his family — ^wife and daughters — ^were per- 
sonally examined, and often an irate husband, 
father or brother, goaded to indignation by the 
indecent humiliation of his kinswomen, would 
lay hands on his bolo-knife and bring matters 
to a bloody crisis with his wanton persecutors." 

In 1812, the Spanish Cortes allowed the Fili- 
pinos representation at Madrid, and in 1837 
they refused them representation. 

In 1817 there was a great plague of cholera 
in Manila, about thirty thousand people died 
from it. A number of English and French 
merchants having remained after the English 
occupation, the natives conceived the idea that 
the foreigners had caused the epidemic by 
poisoning the water in the wells, so they killed 
all the foreigners before the government could 
interfere. 

In 1828, a law was passed, forbidding for- 

149 



eigners to buy land or sell merchandise; an- 
other law provided for a censorship of all 
books printed in the native language, so that 
the natives could not learn anything except just 
what their captors desired them to know. 

In 1844, by royal ordinances, strangers were 
excluded from the interior, and in 1849 a royal 
order from Spain forbade foreigners from go- 
ing into the interior. 

In 1869, a proclamation offering free pardon 
to all ladrones who would present themselves 
within three months was issued. The result 
was quick and startling. Thousands became 
thieves and robbers, and entered into a three 
months' term of robbery, having promise of 
pardon at the expiration of that time. 

In 1872, the natives and native soldiers in 
Cavite arose in insurrection, massacred their 
Spanish officers, and demanded the expulsion 
of the friars and the substitution of native 
priests. The revolt only lasted two days. 
Many of the natives were shot and three na- 
tive priests, Drs. Burgos, Gomas and Zamora, 
were strangled on the garotte. The garotte 
used in Bilibad prison, in Manila, is at present 
in the State Historical Society room at the 

160 



Capitol building, St. Paul, along with the 
shackles and chains that were on the prison- 
ers' feet. 

In 1877, the King's Regiment, Spanish regu- 
lars, revolted. A number were sent to Spain 
in disgrace; others suffered long terms of im- 
prisonment, and every tenth man was told off 
to be shot. 

In 1882, the cholera again visited Manila, 
and thirty thousand people died during the vis- 
itation. 

In 1896, the government tried to persuade the 
influential men in the provinces where the Kati- 
punian was the strongest, to move into the 
southern islands. The people would not be 
persuaded, so an order was issued to that 
effect, and the natives took to the woods. 
They then signed a large petition and sent it 
to Japan, asking to be annexed to that country. 
The Mikado sent the petition to the King of 
Spain, and soon the names of the petitioners 
were known in Manila. About this time Mari- 
ano Gil, formerly parish priest at Bigaa but 
now stationed at Tonda, learned, through the 
confession of a Katipunian named Aguedo Del 
Rosario, about the society. He was kept in pay 

15X 



of the Monks, but the Katipunian, becoming 
informed about the proceeding, he suddenly 
disappeared, and has not been heard from 
since, but he had already had time to divulge 
many secrets. 

At this time Aguinaldo was sub-governor of 
Cavite Viejo, and hearing he was to be arrest- 
ed, took the field against the Spaniards. 

The Luna family also were ordered into ban- 
ishment at this time. Juan Luna, a famous 
painter, joined Aguinaldo and became his sec- 
retary of war, and was killed in 1899. 

His son was killed during the American ad- 
vance on Mololos in 1899, and his body lies in 
San Fernando churchyard, with a wooden slab 
for a headstone. 

Pedro Rojas, who at that time was a guest 
at the governor-general's palace, was seized as 
a traitor, paid a large sum of money to his cap- 
tors and escaped, whilst the Spaniards confis- 
cated his estate of 50,000 acres, his crops and 
15,000 head of cattle. His cousin, Francisco 
Rojas, ship owner, was arrested and executed 
as a traitor. 

On the 20th of August, 1896, the Cavite in- 
surrection again broke out. The insurgents 

153 



captured the Casa Hacienda of the Recolecton 
Friars at Imus, along with the Spanish soldiers 
and thirteen priests, and burned up the title 
deed^ and leases. The priests were all killed, 
after undergoing horrible tortures. One was 
cut up into piecemeal, another saturated with 
oil and burned, and a third covered with oil, a 
bamboo run through the length of his body, 
and roasted to death. At Naic, the insurgents 
killed the officer in charge, ravished his eleven- 
year-old-daughter to death, and were digging 
a hole to bury his wife alive, when she was res- 
cued and taken to Manila on the steam yacht 
Mariposa — raving mad. 

A captured Spanish priest, named Father 
Piernavieja, was caught sending information 
to the Spaniards, so they bound him to a post 
and left him there to die under a tropical sun. 
Twenty years before this man was parish priest 
of San Maguil, and committed two murders, 
one a native youth, and the other a young 
woman enciente. The scandal relating to the 
affair was so great that he was transferred 
from San Maguil to Cavite Province, where he 
happened to be when tardy vengeance came 
along. 

153 



A bitter struggle now took place. No quar- 
ter was given on either side, and twenty-five 
thousand natives perished in Cavite Province 
alone. Filipino priests who were captured 
by the Spaniards were flogged and tortured to 
make them tell what they knew about the 
secret societies through the confessional. 

At Novaleta, the Spaniards attacked the na- 
tives and one-third of the famous Seventy- 
third Regiment was left upon the field. 

At San Francisco de la Union, three native 
priests, Adriano Garces, Mariano Dacayana, 
and Mariano Gaerlaw were tortured with a red- 
hot iron applied to their bodies to force a con- 
fession from them that they were Free Masons. 

At Candaba, a vice president of the Kati- 
punans was tied between two boards and drop- 
ped into a well to make him confess. He went 
down three times, would not confess, and was 
drowned. 

At Mololos, Father Santos caused all the 
members of the town council to be banished 
on account of belonging to secret societies. 

In March, 1896, ten of the leading citizens 
were goaded to desperation by the action of 
the Bishop of Vigan, so they joined forces and 

154 



killed him. A few months previously this 
same friar had ignominously treated his own 
and other native curates by having them strip- 
ped naked, tied down to benches, where he beat 
them with the prickly tail of the ray fish, to 
extort confession from them. 

The Spaniards carried on the war with un- 
relenting severity. Any one who was suspected 
of sympathizing with the insurgents was 
thrown into prison. On the 1st of October, 

1896, the S. S. "Manila" sailed for Cueta and 
other African penal settlements, with 300 patri- 
otic Filipinos on board. 

In Bilibad prison, on the 6th of February, 

1897, there were 1,260 suspects who were sub- 
jected to horrible maltreatment. Some were 
conditionally released after being maimed for 
life. Others were executed, and never a week 
passed during these times but that the green 
sward on the Luneta was red with patriot 
blood. Others, as Antonio Rivero, died under 
torture. These men were the cream of the 
Filipinos. Bonifacio Arevalo, now chief jus- 
tice of the supreme court, was one of them. 

Over 600 suspects were confined in the dun- 
geons of Fort Santiago, in Old Manila, near 

155 



the mouth of the Pasig river. The dungeons 
were below low water mark, and the water 
filtered through the crevices of masonry. 
Whenever the tide was in, the poor unfortu- 
nates were up to their bodies or necks in the 
water, according to height. Sixty of them per- 
ished in forty-eight hours and their bodies 
were floating in the water among the living. 

On July 2, 1897, the Spanish issued an order 
compelling every one to report themselves to 
the military authorities before July 10. The 
people were not allowed to leave their towns 
or villages except to work in the fields, do 
their daily work or follow their usual avoca- 
tion. All who had outside business must be 
provided with passes, stating how and where 
they were going, when they would return, and 
what their business was. If they failed to com- 
ply with the law they would be treated as reb- 
els and courtmartialed. Instead of obeying, 
Aguinaldo issued a proclamation in re- 
turn, demanding the expulsion of the friars, 
representation in the Spanish Cortes, freedom 
of the press and religious toleration. The 
military authorities were in favor of granting 
the reforms, but the friars were opposed to the 

156 



demands made. However, the natives had made 
such progress that the case was desperate, so 
Senor Paterno was deputated by the Spanish 
government to see Aguinaldo and negotiate a 
treaty of peace, which was called the Treaty 
of Biac-na-bato, and was executed near Angat, 
in the province of Bulucan, on the 14th of De- 
cember, 1897. On the Filipino side, it was 
agreed they should deliver up their arms and 
ammunition and captured territory and be good 
for three years and that Aguinaldo and thirty- 
four of his principal men should leave the coun- 
try and not return without permission from 
the Spanish government. 

On the Spanish side, it was agreed to grant 
the Filipinos the reforms demanded and asked 
three years in which to carry out the reforms. 
They also agreed to pay the rebels one million 
Mexican dollars as indemnity and to reimburse 
the natives not in arms to the extent of seven 
hundred thousand Mexican. After signing the 
treaty, Aguinaldo and his co-patriots went to 
Hong-Kong, where the Spaniards gave him a 
draft for four hundred thousand dollars, Mexi- 
can. There have been some disputes about the 
money, but it appears that instead of the mon- 

167 



ey going to Aguinaldo and the other leaders 
directly it was kept as trust money to be used 
on behalf of the Filipinos, in case Spain did 
not carry out the promised reforms. A year 
later, Otarcha, one of the Filipino leaders, 
brought suit against Aguinaldo in the Hong- 
Kong courts to get his own individual share 
of the money, but was resisted on the above 
ground. 

The natives carried out their side of the 
agreement; Spain did not. They did not pay 
the balance of the indemnity and instead of 
granting the reforms demanded they started 
to punish the men who had laid down their 
arms, many were cast into prison, others were 
executed. The result was the red flag of re- 
volt was again flying in the air. 

On March 25, 1898, occurred the massacre 
of Calle de Camba, named after the street where 
it occurred in Binonda. It appears a number of 
Visayan sailors were having a discussion in a 
saloon and were talking loudly, and some one 
called the police. The Guardia Civil came 
along and shot down a large number, includ- 
ing many passersby on the street. They took 
a number of prisoners and the next morning 

158 



sixty men were taken out to the cemetery and 
shot.* 

At the time the Americans captured Manila, 
Aguinaldo had all the Spaniards driven into 
that town from the interior and had succeeded 
in capturing one thousand Spanish soldiers and 
priests. The only place that remained under 
Spanish rule was the town of Baler, on the 
northern coast of Luzon, that garrison not 
surrendering till three months afterwards. 
Two days before the Americans captured 
Manila, a native regiment was suspected of be- 
ing about to desert. The Spanish officers 
picked out six corporals and had them shot 
dead. Next night the whole regiment went 
oyer to the insurgents with their arms and ac- 
coutrements. 

On the 13th of August, 1898, the Americans 
captured Manila, the Thirteenth Minnesota 
Regiment having more casualties in that en- 
gagement than all the other regiments com- 
bined. 



*Ten days later the Visayan islands were in open revolt. 



159 



CHAPTER XXVL 

THE GEORGE WASHINGTON OF THE 

PHILIPPINES, JOSE RIZAL. 



Poet, artist, novelist, oculist, and Philippine 
patriot, was born in 1861 at Calamba, Luzon. 
He was educated under the tutorage of the na- 
tive priest Leontis. He was eleven years of 
age when the people of Cavite rose and de- 
manded the expulsion of the friars who had be- 
come so strong with such great influences at 
Madrid that the civil authorities were unable 
or dared not cope with them. The Philosopher 
said, "The government is an arm, the head is 
the convent." From Calamba he went to Man- 
ila, then to Spain, Germany, Austria, France, 
England and Italy, studied in the different 
universities and wrote articles to liberal news- 
papers on the continent in favor of his native 
land. Later he returned to his native land and 
got into trouble with the Dominican friars, re- 
lating to titles to land. His writings were pro- 
scribed and not allowed to circulate in the 
islands, so he went to Japan, and from thence 

160 



to America. In 1891, his native province, 
Calamba, revolted, so he went to its aid, was 
arrested and banished to Dapidan, where he 
remained four years. Here he got acquainted 
with Josephine Bracken, daughter of an Irish 
Sergeant in the English army, and on the day 
that he was sentenced to death on the charge 
of sedition and rebellion they were married. 
His bride passed the night outside his prison 
door on her knees, and at six o'clock next morn- 
ing, December 30th, 1896, he was led out on 
the Luneta and shot in the back by the Spanish 
soldiers. He made a splendid defence and was 
convicted by his judges, eight captains and a 
lieutenant colonel in the Spanish army, upon 
the perjured evidence of men who, since Amer- 
ican occupation, have made affidavits that the 
evidence was false and forced from them by 
torture. The bride joined the insurgents, was 
present at the battle of Silang and, being de- 
feated, fled into the northern provinces on foot. 
She was banished by the Spaniards a few 
months later. During the American occupa- 
tion she returned to the scene of such painful 
memories and went from Manila to Hong- 
Kong, where she died in 1902. Jose Rizal is 

(ii; 161 



now hailed with honor. The natives celebrate 
the day of his birth, and later the Americans 
made the anniversary of his birth a public holi- 
day, which is observed yearly in the public 
schools, throughout the archipelago. He was 
a victim to the friars, the idol of his people 
and a martyr to their cause. This untimely 
death in their behalf appealed to their patriotic 
feelings, so that now in the Philippines, the 
name of Jose Rizal is revered even as the 
American venerates the name of George Wash- 
ington. He was the founder of the Lige Philip- 
pine, which, along with the Masonic Society, 
was placed under the ban of the church and 
broken up. The members scattered or were 
driven out of the country. After the revolt in 
Cavite, in 1872, the K. K. K., or Kataastaasan 
Kagalanggalang Katipunan Society, was 
founded by Andres Bonifacio. Its member- 
ship included the common people entirely. It 
was often confounded with the Free Masons, 
but there is no comparison between the two. 
It soon attained a membership of thirty thou- 
sand, and was a power to conjure with. The 
password was Gom-bur-za, named after the 
patriotic friars who were executed after the 

162 



II 



Cavite revolt, Gom-ez, Bur-gos and Za-mora. 
The subordinate lodges of the society consist- 
ed of ten men each, one of the ten men was 
delegated to another lodge of ten, who, in turn, 
elected another man to a higher lodge of ten, 
till ultimately it reached the highest officers 
of the order. Under that system no man could 
betray more than twenty men to their enemies, 
and no man knew when conversing whether 
he was talking to a brother Katipunan or not. 
The result was, it was said, that the natives be- 
came more distrustful and secretive than ever. 
During the initiation a vein was opened in the 
candidate's arm and as the blood slowly drip- 
ped away the man was pledged to give the rest 
of his blood to help drive the Spanish from 
the country. After the capture of Naic, by the 
insurgents, Andres Bonifacio was shot by 
Aguinaldo's orders, who did not approve of 
his bloodthirsty methods. 



163 



CHAPTER XXVII. 
HOMEWARD BOUND. 



August 8th, 1899. 
We have been a year in Luzon and are about 
to start for America. Today the regiment held 
memorial services at Paco cemetery, over the 
graves of our comrades we leave behind — plant- 
ed in a foreign shore. The regimental chap- 
lain gave a very appropriate talk and told about 
being on the firing line and was with many of 
the boys when they died. Was glad he was 
somewhere, for I have only seen him three 
times since we landed in Luzon, a year ago, 
once at Tim Enright's funeral, once when 
marching through Manila, going to Caloocan 
when he half opened his bedroom window and 
looked at the regiment passing along in the] 
night. And once at Guiguinto, when Colonel! 
Ames made B Company his headquarters, he! 
came out on the train and helped eat the dinner 
of chickens the boys had brought from Bulucan, 
six miles away. Was very fortunate in not 
needing his services, but needed what many of 

164 



the chaplains furnished, and we did not get, 
writing paper and shoestrings. 

A year has made many changes here. Went 
up to the Escolta and had to salute so many 
officers that we hired a caronetta and rode up 
the street. It was crowded and formed a won- 
derful contrast to the deserted place we marched 
down a year ago. Then, everything was 
quiet as the grave, stores all closed and win- 
dows barricaded, very few people on the streets, 
while from the roofs waved the flags of differ- 
ent nations, whose subjects owned the prop- 
erty beneath. Now the street is crowded, peo- 
ple moving in a hurry, newspaper kids and 
boot-blacks are working overtime, soda water 
instead of two cents per bottle, is now sold 
at twenty, other articles have advanced in pro- 
portion and the starry flag is the only rag in 
sight. 

During the regiment's term of service it has 
served under the following generals: 

General King — at Camp Merritt. 

General Merritt — at Camp Dewey. 

General McArthur — at Sinkgalon. 

General Otis — at Manila. 

General Hughes — at Manila. 

166 r 



General Hale — at Luneta. 

General Hall — at Marquina. 

General Wheaton — at Santa Maria. 

General Somers — at Nosgaray. 

General Lawton — at San Maguil. 

General Kobbe — at De Lumboid. 

General Shafter — at San Francisco. 
We have the following men at the head of 
the regiment: Reeve, Ames, Diggles, Master- 
man, Bean and Fredericks, and part or the 
whole regiment has participated in the follow- 
ing engagements: 

Battle of Manila, Aug. 13, 1898. 

Uprising by Insurgents, Feb. 14, 1899. 

Riot in Tondo District, Feb. 5, 1899. 

Uprising of Manila, Feb. 14, 1899. 

Tondo District Uprising, Feb. 22, 1899. 

Tondo District Uprising, Feb. 23, 1899. 

Battle of Marquina Road, March 25, 1899. 

Skirmish, Marquina Road, March 26, 1899. 

Skirmish near Bocane, April 9, 1899. 

Skirmish near Santa Maria, April 9, 1899. 

Attack on Railroad Track, April 10-11, 1899. 

Battle of Santa Maria, April 12, 1899. 

Skirmish near Quingua, April 14, 1899. 

Skirmish near GuiguintOy April 14, 1899. 

166 



Skirmish near Quingua, April 16, 1899. 
Battle of Guiguinto, April 20, 1899. 
Battle of Quingua, April 21, 1899. 
Skirmish near Quingua, April 25, 1899. 
With General Lawton's Expedition — Com- 
panies K, L, M, G, C, D, E and H. 

Battle of Norzagaray, April 23-24, 1899. 
Skirmish near Angat, April 24, 1899. 
Attack on Norzagaray, April 25, 1899. 
Battle at Angat, April 25, 1899. 
Battle of Marangco, April 27, 1899. 
Capture Polo and San Rafael, April 29, 1899. 
Battle of San Rafael, May 1, 1899. 
Battle of Balluag, May 2, 1899. 
Battle of Maasin, May 4, 1899. 
Skirmish near San Ildefonso, May 8, 1899. 
Capture of San Ildefonso, May 12, 1899. 
Capture of San Miguel, May 13, 1899. 
Battle of Salacot, May 15, 1899. 
Capture of Baluarte, May 16, 1899. 
Capture of San Roque, May 16, 1899. 
Battle of San Isidro, May 17, 1899. 
Capture of Gapan, May 17, 1899. 
Skirmish at San Antonio, May 20, 1899. 
Skirmish near Arayat, May 21, 1899. 
Thirty-five engagements, all told. 

167 



August 12. 
Left Manila with the South Dakota boys on 
board the Sheridan, which is well fitted up for 
a transport. 

Colonel Fredericks is spending the regiment- 
al fund and the boys are eating the proceeds. 
We had retreat on the upper deck in blue suits, 
leggings and belts ; there was not room for the 
men to stand at company front, so we were 
sandwiched among ropes, machinery, etc., but 
I suppose that satisfied the officers' idea of 
dress parade; it certainly put us poor privates 
to a great deal of trouble. We thought that 
hard, but when the top sergeant gave orders 
that from today forth we shall drill twice a 
day, have inspection of quarters twice a day, 
that we have to wear a certain uniform on drill, 
the boys turned loose and hollowed "rotten," 
and bawled the officers out to their faces. 
Colonel Frost, of the South Dakota, is senior 
officer in command and posted up the following 
daily table of calls: 

First call 5:45 

Reveille 6:00 

Sick call 6 :30 

Mess call 7 :00 

168 



Fatigue call 7 :35 

First call 7 :4S 

Assembly, G. M 7 :55 

Adjutant call 8:00 

Band practice 8 :35 

First call 9 :45 

Assembly 9 :55 

Inspection 10 :00 

Drill 10:30 

Mess call 12 :00 

Fatigue call 1 :00 

First Sergeant call 1 :10 

Discharged soldiers' drill 2 :00 

Band practice 2 :00 

Drill 3:00 

Sick call 3 :00 

Mess call 5 :00 

Fatigue call 5 :45 

Retreat 6:00 

Band concert 7 :30 

Call to quarters 8 :4S 

Taps 9 :00 



169 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 
IN FAIR JAPAN. 



August 16, 1899. 
Arrived at Nagasaki, Japan, and got shore 
leave. Colonel Frost wanted the men to go 
ashore in detachments, but the ship's captain 
said for all to go ashore so that he could coal 
up the ship. We stayed three days here, sight- 
seeing and buying and gathering souvenirs 
which were ridiculously cheap. Then we went 
to Yokohama and stayed two days. Some of 
us went up to Tokio from here. The seventy- 
five American families in Yokohama enter- 
tained the returning volunteers and furnished 
writing paper, luncheons, baths, tea — hot or 
iced. They made a showing that would have 
been a credit to any city of seventy-five thou- 
sand inhabitants. At the Salvation Army bar- 
racks we could get real American food, not 
half Spanish or half army, but the real Amer- 
ican article. We ate all the pickles and sausages 
in Yokohama. The boys spent every cent that 

170 



they owned, could borrow or beg here, and were 
sorry they did not have more to spend. 

Japan is in the antipodes and nearly every- 
thing is done contrary to the way we perform, 
the same things in America. If a Japanese is 
in deep thought he will scratch his knee instead 
of his head. If he wishes a man to come to 
him he makes a motion as though pressing him 
away. Joe Stracham, when in Nagasaki, not 
being well and feeling faint, went into a tea- 
house and asked for some coffee. He could 
not get any, so thought he would have a bottle 
of beer. After giving the order and before 
being served, an American lady missionary 
came and sat down by him and began to in- 
quire about the Filipinos, their nature, hab- 
its, etc. The Jap made several attempts to 
come to Joe, but the latter, not wishing to 
drink beer in the presence of the mission- 
ary, kept motioning him back. It appears he 
motioned to him nine times and when Joe and 
the missionary got so interested in conversa- 
tion that the former forgot where he was at, 
the Jap came and placed in front of them nine 
bottles of beer. 

Oh the evening of the 23d of August, 1899, 

171 



at the Grand Hotel at Yokohama, Japan, dur- 
ing a concert given by the Thirteenth Minne- 
sota Regimental Band, and in the presence of 
a number of enlisted men, civilians and ladies. 
Lieutenant Chambers went up to some of the 
soldiers who were sitting on the veranda lis- 
tening to the music, and pushing them to one 

side, said : "What are you sons of b doing 

here? This is no place for soldiers, this is for 
gentlemen," and going inside the hotel, insisted 
upon the bartender serving him with drinks 
before the common soldiers were served, say- 
ing, "Private soldiers do not amount to any- 
thing anyhow. They are as the worm under 
my heel ; they are nothing but dogs." 



CHAPTER XXIX. 
ON THE OCEAN AGAIN. 



Yohohama, August 25, 1899. 
Left Yokohama on the 25th for San Fran- 
cisco. The weather got colder, the discipline 
more exact and overbearing, and the food kept 
getting better. The officers kept trying to 
make the discharged soldiers from the regular 

17a 



army who are going home and are now Amer- 
ican citizens, drill and do fatigue duty, and 
they absolutely refused and nearly every day 
some of them were marched to the Brig, (cala- 
boose). During this time one of Minnesota's 
most stalwart sons achieved incontestible and 
unquenchable renown by his disinterestedness 
to the cause of tyranny and oppression. His 
unwavering, steadfast devotion to his ideal of 
discipline, the unremitting, persistent manner 
in which he endeavored to enforce the obnox- 
ious regulations he imagined himself entrust- 
ed with, the injudicious and arbitrary contrari- 
ness exhibited may make him an ideal officer 
among officers, but graven deep upon the tab- 
lets of the men's memory, who were not of- 
ficers, it is written, "The chief of the slop pail 
brigade. Lieutenant Hauft, the scavenger lieu- 
tenant." 

August 32. 
This is the place where we lose a day. Went 
to bed last night (Thursday night) and woke 
up Thursday morning; at this rate before a 
man becomes grey-headed he will become a 
boy again. This is the point opposite Green- 
wich, the other side of the globe, and as we 

173 



lose or gain twenty-four hours in circumnavi- 
gating the globe, so as we travel east or west 
from here to Greenwich, we will lose or gain 
an hour in time for every twelfth of the dis- 
tance traveled. Was on guard, the weather 
very cold, and the sea rough ; the boys all wear 
overcoats, and many have blankets wrapped 
around their overcoats. One fellow came up 
from the South Dakota gangway and vomited 
a worm ten inches long. He was a very sick 
man and it was comical to see him with his 
pale, sickly face, telling the hospital steward 
about it ; in conclusion, he said : "I never was 
so scared in my life. I thought I had coughed 
my insides out." The steward wanted to see it 
and so did I, and were sorry — awfully sorry — in 
a second we were both making contributions 
to the fishes. Some one came along and asked 
why I left my post. I told him I would leave 
the whole d d ship if I got a chance. Hap- 
pened to look around and saw the officer of the 
day, the ship gave a lurch just then and he 
shot across to the other side, swung around a 
pillar twice and ran into the arms of the butch- 
er who was chasing pieces of meat that were 
drifting about on the deck, cussing the storm. 



174 



the ship, the crew, and the day he enlisted, and 

then started in on d d greenhorns who 

could not walk on deck when there was a 

little swell; what in h 1 would they do in 

a storm? The officer finally got out of the way 
and I guess we were all glad the storm kept 
him busy. I ought to have been relieved at 
four o'clock, but was not. At five, the corporal 
came along and said the man who ought to 
relieve me was sick, so I told him I would re- 
lieve myself, and went to look at the supper. 
Of the three men who were at that post I 
was the only one left, and when the corporal 
came around at eight o'clock, I said I was sick, 
and he replied he was glad of it. 

The various monkeys are shivering and chat- 
tering with the cold, and one bob-tailed amigo 
leaped overboard in disgust. 

The South Dakota Billy Goat is just in his 
element — can walk around in bad weather bet- 
ter than any soldier on board. 

One large wave came overboard and 
drenched seven privates and one captain. I 
rather like the sea after all ; it does not respect 
shoulder straps. 

Got my dishes and went up to supper, when 

175 



the ship, which seemed to have settled down a 
little calmer, gave an extraordinary lurch and 
four or five men who were serving out supper, 
sitting down on the deck with their backs to 
the partition, and the various cans of meat, 
bread and potatoes between their knees, for 
better security, started to go with the roll of 
the ship, and in the twinkling of an eye the 
whole outfit, dishes, food, arms, legs and salt 
water were one struggling, complicated mess 
in the scupper. The ship then rolled the other 
way and those who were not anchored went 
over there also. The decks are of sheet iron 
and make beautiful slides. Babe Barrett was 
running from one post to another when a din- 
ing table, wrong side up, came and took his feet 
from under him. He fell on the table and had 
a good toboggan slide. Doctor Law, in a new 
suit of clothes, came and looked at the place 
where the dispensary formerly was, and miss- 
ing a post, fell and was soon sliding around, 
wiping up the deck with the new suit of clothes, 
till some fellow caught him by the leg. Every- 
body who didn't have a lead pipe cinch on a 
post or was not anchored to something solid, 
went with the roll. 



176 



One man had several ribs broken and several 
had teeth knocked out. The boys are coughing 
like a kindergarten of babies with the whoop- 
ing cough. The bandmen had troubles of their 
own, their instruments were falling down and 
sliding around with old shoes, knapsacks, sou- 
venirs, everything that was not tied or nailed 
down. The dining tables and benches are 
placed overhead when not in use; they all fell 
down one after another, the top sergeant's desk 
was tied up, and broke away, and down in the 
South Dakota quarters several inches of water 
flowed from side to side with each roll of the 
ship, whilst once in awhile some poor mortal 
would roll out of bed. 

Sept. 1. 

Storm let up. Only twelve men out to drill 
in B Company, and the lieutenant made some 
remarks about it. The men say they are sick; 
so they are, sick at heart, badgered to death. 
Thought they were going to be mustered out, 
but are getting knocked around harder than 
any rookie. 

Met the pilot boats coming out to meet ships. 
One asked if we wanted a pilot and a ship's 
officer yelled back, "Yes, we want a sky pilot," 

(II) X77 



and the other man started swearing. The fel- 
lows are running around, laughing and yelling, 
and acting like a pack of lunatics. They know 
enough to appreciate the land of their birth 
now. One fellow was gesticulating and mov- 
ing his face in a comer, and I went alongside, 
and stretching my ears, heard him reciting 
Scott's poem : 

Breathes there a man with soul so dead 
Who never to himself has said: 
"This is my own, my native land." 
Whose heart has ne'er within him burned, 
As homeward his footsteps he hath turned 
From off a foreign strand. 



CHAPTER XXX. 
HOME, SWEET HOME. 



As soon as we were anchored inside the Gold- 
en Gate, the San Francisco Chronicle's launch 
came alongside with the evening papers, and 
we soon had something to talk about, for we 
have been dead to the world for a month now. 
About eight o'clock we had a ten weeks' mail 
come aboard, and immediately after everybody 
was trying to get near a light to see how the 

178 



old and young folks at home were getting 
along. Last night the large dynamo broke, so 
we had no lights down in the quarters at all. 
There was a small dynamo aboard, enough to 
give light in the officers' quarters and on deck, 
but those lights on deck could scarcely be seen 
for dark figures staring with large, bright eyes 
out from the darkness, trying to read the letters 
that had been waiting so long. 

When the ship dropped anchor, and before 
the quarantine officer had inspected the ship, 
ex-soldier brevet Brigadier-General C. McC. 
Reeve came aboard. This strict disciplinarian, 
who had violated the Sixty-first Article of War 
by using personal and violent abuse to his men, 
not in America, with its independent press and 
unfettered public opinion, but on board ship, 
where he was in supreme command, and the 
boys had no redress; who had placed men un- 
der arrest, threatened them with irons and 
drum-head courtmartials, not for making com- 
plaints, but for expressing opinions among 
themselves, unaware that he was near; who 
had acted the blackguard at Paranaque; who 
had smuggled Mrs. Reeve on board the 
"City of Para," at San Francisco, contrary to 

170 



the rules and regulations of war, — now de- 
liberately set at defiance the quarantine laws 
of the state, which provides that no person 
shall go aboard or leave a ship unless with per- 
mission of the quarantine officer of the post. 

Since General Reeve came aboard the boat 
the boys have learned much. We hear of men 
having cold feet who never went barefooted 
before. It is impossible to find any bullet holes 
in the hats of the officers who advise others to 
wear woolen socks. Colonel Reeve, Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Fredericks, Major Bean, and Cap- 
tain Corriston were each present and did good 
work at the taking of Manila, Aug. 13, 1898, 
but were not present and did not participate in 
any of the other thirty-four different engage- 
ments that portions of the regiment partici- 
pated in. Colonel Reeve was breveted brig- 
adier-general and mustered out of the army; 
Lieutenant-Colonel Fredericks was back in 
America on sick leave; Major Bean and Cap- 
tain Corriston each stayed in Manila on special 
duty. Colonel Ames stayed with the regiment, 
participated in every engagement until he was 
taken to the hospital on a stretcher with a tem- 
perature of 103. 

180 






Next morning we turned out for medical in- 
spection by the quarantine officer, then pulled 
up anchor and went down the harbor to Pier 
No. 34. As we sailed past the wharves all the 
steam whistles and bells rang, and many was 
the fellow this morning who drew a deep 
breath and muttered to himself, "There is no 
place like home." Are just commencing to 
realize that they have reached God's country, 
and that their troubles are about over. 

Shortly after we anchored the friends of the 
regiment came flocking aboard and it was a 
curious sight to see the different manners of 
greetings that were passed to and fro. It was 
sad. Ladies came up the gang plank with 
strained eyes, looking for their son, husband, 
or sweetheart, as the case might be, and when 
once they saw the man they would clasp their 
arms around his neck, and plant kisses upon 
the poor fellow who invariably had his hat 
knocked off, and was perfectly conscious that 
a thousand soldiers were staring at them. 
Some of the boys inquired for were in the hos- 
pital, others were disabled for life, and here the 
meeting was a mixture of sorrow and gladness 
combined. Other folks who had friends and 

181 



kindred of boys planted in Luzon, came to hear 
the boys' friends tell them of how the poor fel- 
low died. As a rule it was sad for us outsiders 
to behold these scenes, but we could not get 
away from them. The showing of the true feel- 
ing of the men and friends was respected by 
the other boys, who on any other occasion 
would have guyed them unmercifully. About 
ten o'clock Colonel Ames came aboard, and 
the boys cheered him; he went up to the offi- 
cers' deck and they saluted and turned their 
backs to him; the men noticing this, cheered 
the colonel more loudly. The incident was the 
sensation of the day, and that day and all night 
agitated groups would be found in the quar- 
ters arguing and debating the subject pro and 
con. The result was that at ten o'clock at 
night they gathered in front of the officers' 
quarters, of the men who had tried to turn the 
colonel down, and gave three cheers for Colonel 
Ames, three times over. Whatever may be 
said of Colonel Ames, he was always a gentle- 
man, always treated his men as men, which 
was more than the officers did who tried to 
turn him down. 
Next morning the regiment marched out to 

169 



camp. I was too weak and sick to march, so 
took the street car to Van Ness avenue, where 
General Shafter reviewed the troops. I sat on 
the sidewalk and watched them pass along. 
First the Third Artillery, with band, cannon 
drawn by six black horses, the men in platoon 
formation behind, could not but admire their 
fine military appearance; then a company of 
the Sixth Cavalry, mounted, then the South 
Dakota boys, with Colonel Frost walking in 
the lead, then the Minnesota boys, Major Bean 
and the staff officers riding on horseback. 
Sergeant-Major Krembs and Sergeant Leavitt, 
two wide, big fellows, marched in front of the 
band, after which came the companies in pla- 
toon formation. The St. Paul companies put 
up the best appearance, then came the ambu- 
lance wagons, and then the escort of honor, 
volunteered by the North Dakota boys. From 
here I took the street car to the camp and 
watched the boys come in. Everything was 
changed now. Men and women were passing 
along, hand in hand, girls carrying guns and 
knapsacks, people were greeting and yelling at 
old acquaintances, some from Minnesota, many 
made in San Francisco a year ago, and many 

183 



more made in Luzon. The soldiers had lost 
their stern, dark look, and were more wearied 
and looked more happy as they gazed at the 
honest, white faces about them. In the proces- 
sion they wore a set, stern, dark look, turning 
neither to the right nor the left, and it was a 
hard matter to cheer them. They looked so 
unresponsive and the onlookers' faces wore an 
expression of awe rather than of gladness. 
There were some people whom that look would 
not down, so they were cheering the boys on 
their way. When the boys arrived in camp, 
they all flocked to the colonel's tent and 
cheered for Colonel Ames. Then Lieutenant 
Garcelon jumped on a barrel and yelled out, 
"Three cheers for our old commander. General 
Reeve," and not a man spoke in reply. The 
silence was oppressive. Evidently thinking he 
had been misunderstood, the Lieutenant again 
yelled out, "Three cheers for Colonel Reeve. 
Hip, hip, hip," and not a word replied to his. 
The citizens congregated, looked at the soldiers 
and the soldiers looked blank. Just then, Joe 
Stracham, now a citizen, yelled out, "Three 
cheers for Colonel Ames," and it was given with 
a tiger. They then all rushed up and shook 

184 



hands with the colonel, who stood, his gray 
hair streaming in the wind, too agitated to 
speak. Tom Graham ran up with a biscuit in 
one hand and shook hands with the other, ex- 
claiming, "They may fool McGinnis, Colonel, 
but they can't fool you and me." 

At San Francisco the government furnished 
us fine rations, the camp duties were merely 
nominal, and all the boys who were able, had 
a good time, the hospitality of the warm-heart- 
ed Californians seemed to be limitless. In ad- 
dition to the private parties, entertainments, 
the different companies of the California regi- 
ment, now mustered out, entertained the cor- 
responding companies of the Minnesota regi- 
ment to a banquet, which in the case of Com- 
pany B, was served at the Occidental Hotel. 
Mayor Phelan gave the address of welcome. 

Captain Rowley, in reply, remarked that he 
was glad the noble state stood where it did — 
keeping the rest of the continent from being 
washed away by the Pacific ocean. 

Governor Lind spoke about how the South- 
ern people stared and wondered at the size of 
the men in the Twelfth Regiment when down 
South, and Mayor Gray, who made a short 

X85 



address immediately afterward, said that the 
reason the men were so large must be because 
they were Swedes. Tom Graham inquired, 
"Where were the Irish?" and good-looking, 
jolly Mike Shannausy yelled out, "The Irish 
were all in the Thirteenth." 

The regiment was mustered out on the third 
of October, 1899, and two days later started for 
Minnesota. At Portland, Tacoma, Spokane, 
etc., the regiment was uproariously received, 
and at Fargo, in the middle of the night, the 
reception committee from the Twin Cities met 
us and soon we learned we were back in good, 
old Minnesota. 

On arriving at St. Paul, the companies were 
lined up preparatory to marching down to the 
Auditorium, where an abundant breakfast, fur- 
nished by the friends of the regiment, was 
awaiting us. Company H was lined up with 
the others, and when Captain Bjomstad gave 
the command, "Forward march," not a man 
followed him. Being already mustered out, 
they absolutely refused, as American citizens, 
to walk down the street in his company. So 
Lieutenant Sauter led the boys on this, the 
proudest and happiest day of their lives. After 

186 



breakfast, we were taken to Minneapolis, and 
reviewed by President McKinley and the as- 
sembled thousands, sumptuously fed at the Ex- 
position building, after which each one dropped 
from the ranks and assumed the interrupted 
duties of a private citizen. 




187 



Appendix 



The following extracts, culled from outside sources, 
are printed for the benefit of those disinterested pa- 
triots who walked in the opposite direction from the 
recruiting office and complained that during the war 
the Twin City daily papers were filled with nothing 
but the Thirteenth Minnesota. 



189 



Contents of Appendix 



General McArthur's Official Repprt 191 

San Francisco Chronicle's Remarks 192 

General King's Letter 192 

General Wheaton's Telegram 193 

President McKinley's Message 193 

General Summers' Official Report 194 

General Summers' Minneapolis Remarks 195 

Colonel Reeve's Farewell Address 195 

Colonel Ames' Opening Remarks 196 

Roll of Honor 198 

Wounded of the Thirteenth 199 

Missing of the Thirteenth 204 

Eighth Army Corps Poetry 204 

The American Soldier 211 

Extracts from the Manila Freedom 211 

San Francisco Chronicle's Remarks 213 

San Francisco Call's Remarks 213 

Honolulu Bulletin's Remarks 213 

A Portland Report 21 



190 



GEN. McARTHUR'S OFFICIAL REPORT. 



In his report of the capture of Manila, Aug. 13, 
1898, General Mc Arthur wrote: 

"* * * The general advance was soon resumed, 
the Thirteenth Minnesota, with Company K as ad- 
vance guard leading, then the Astor Battery, a battal- 
ion of the Twenty-third Infantry, a battalion of the 
Fourteenth Infantry, and the North Dakota regiment 
following in the order named. * * * AH difficul- 
ties were soon overcome, however, including the 
passage of the Astor Battery, by the determined 
efforts of Lieutenant March and his men, assisted by 
the infantry of the Minnesota regiment, over the 
gun emplacements which obstructed the road. 

«* « * xhe advance party, consisting of men of 
the Minnesota regiment, were reinforced by volun- 
teers of the Astor Battery, led by Lieutenant March 
and Captain Sawtelle, of the brigade staff, as an indi- 
vidual volunteer, reached a point within less than 
eighty yards of the block house, but was obliged to 
retire to the intersection road in the village, at which 
point a hasty work was improvised and occupied by 
a firing line of about fifteen men. Aside from the 
conspicuous individual actions in the first rush, the 
well-regulated contact of this firing line was a marked 
feature of the contest, and it is proposed, if possible, 
to ascertain the names of the men engaged, with a 
view of recommending them for especial distinction. 

"* * * The cool, determined and sustained effort 
of Colonel Reeve, of the Thirteenth Minnesota, con- 
tributed very materially to the maintenance of the 
discipline and marked efficiency of the regiment." 



101 



It was ascertained later that the following men 
were included among the above mentioned fifteen : 

Corporal Cowden. (a) Private Worthington. (e) 

Private Weidle. (b) Private Widman. 

Private Wallace, (c) Private Peake. 

Private Thorsel. (d) Private Berndt. 

(a) Discharged by order, March 10, 1899. 

(b) Wounded in arm at Caloocan, Feb. 28, 1899. 

(c) Wounded in shoulder at Manila, Aug. 13, 1898. 

(d) Wounded in head at Manila, Aug. 13, 1898. 

(e) Disappeared, June 7, 1899. 



SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE'S REMARKS. 



San Francisco Chronicle said, the morning after 
the drill in the Mechanics' Pavilion, San Francisco: 

"Very fine looking men those Minnesota boys, well 
equipped and excellently drilled. They are an ex- 
ample of what volunteers may be and are surpassed 
by few regulars. Those who saw them last night did 
not wonder that General Merritt especially requested 
this Minnesota regiment for the Philippines." 



GEN. KING'S LETTER TO GOV. CLOUGH. 



The following letter was written by Brig.- Gen. 
King, commending the work of the Minnesota 
soldiers at San Francisco: 

"Camp Merritt, July 27. 

"Sir: — The detachment of recruits for the Thir- 
teenth Minnesota, being under orders to embark, 
thus severing, for a time at least, all connection of 
that regiment with this brigade, I deem it a duty to 
say that of the entire command of 15,000 men that 
have come under my observation at this point since 



199 



June 10, no organization has excelled and few have 
equalled the Thirteenth Minnesota in drill, discipline 
and general efficiency. The officers and men have 
won the respect and admiration of their comrades in 
the field and I look forward to their restoration to 
my command in the Philippines with impatience and 
pleasure. 

"Colonel Reeve and all his officers were meritor- 
ious, and one non-commissioned officer so remarkably 
efficient in command for several weeks of a detach-- 
ment of 300 Oregon recruits, that I beg leave to point 
out to you as fully qualified for and deserving a com- 
mission. I refer to Sergeant Joseph C. Stracham, 
Company B. 

"(Signed) GENERAL CHARLES KING." 



GEN. WHEATON'S TELEGRAM. 



On April 10, 1899, after the insurgents' midnight 
attack on the railroad. Major Diggles received the 
following telegram: 

"Capt. Rowley, Capt. Carleton and Lieut. Pearse 
have received mention to General McArthur for gal- 
lantry. (Signed) WHEATON." 



PRESIDENT McKINLEY'S MESSAGE. 



At San Isidro a message was received from Presi- 
dent McKinley, congratulating General Lawton and 
the troops under his command, on the success of the 
thirty days' expedition in which eight companies of 
the Minnesotas participated. 



(13) 193 



GEN. LAWTON'S ORDER. 



When the thirty days* hike was over General Law- 
ton issued the following order: 
"Headquarters, First Division, Eighth Army Corps, 

in the Field, Candaba, Luzon, 
"General Orders No. 12. 

"The commanding officer, in relieving this regi- 
ment, desires to express his appreciation of the effi- 
ciency, courage and uncomplaining endurance con- 
stantly shown by its officers and men while on this 
expedition. By command of Major General Lawton. 
"(Signed) CLARENCE R. EDWARDS, 

"Assistant Adjutant General." 



GEN. SUMMERS' OFFICIAL REPORT. 



Official report of Gen. Simimers: 

"Quartel de Espana, Manila, P. I., June 10, 1899. 
"Assistant Adjutant General, 

Eighth Army Corps, Manila, P. I. 

"In closing this, my official report of operations of 
my command, and in compliance with instructions 
of the division commander, I have the honor to 
especially request and recommend for promotion for 
meritorious and faithful service during the campaign, 
the following officers: 

Capt. J. P. Masterman, 13th Minnesota. 

Capt. C. T. Spear, 13th Minnesota. 

Capt. Oscar Seeback, 13th Minnesota. 

"In recommending these officers for promotion I 
desire to call attention to their untiring efforts and 
faithful performance of every duty assigned them and 
furthermore the successful accomplishment of the 



104 



same as well as their consideration of the officers 
and men under them. "O. SUMMERS, 

"Brevet Brigadier-General, 
^ "1st Division, 8th Army Corps." 



GEN. SUMMERS' MINNEAPOLIS REMARKS. 



General Summers was with President McKinley 
when the regiment made its last march in Minne- 
apolis, and said to the boys from the platform at the 
exposition building: "The Second Oregon and part 
of the Thirteenth Minnesota constituted my command 
under General Lawton and I want to shake hands and 
have one more word with the boys of the regiment 
just once more before they disband. The people 
back in Oregon think just as much of the Thirteenth 
as they do of the Oregons, and I guess that fact was 
demonstrated by the rousing reception they gave 
the Minnesotans when they passed through our city 
on their way home. General Lawton spoke of the 
Thirteenth in terms of the highest praise. He said 
to me, it would be impossible to get a finer body 
of men together and that he could not have asked 
for soldiers more equal to the occasion — to all the 
emergencies through which they passed — than the 
gallant fellows who made up the Thirteenth Minne- 
sota and the Second Oregon." 



COL. REEVE'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. 



Col. Reeve's address to the regiment on relin- 
quishing command: 

"Headquarters, Police Department, 

"Manila, P. I., Sept. 2, 1898. 
"To the Officers and Men of the Thirteenth Regi- 
ment: 

"It is with feelings of profound regret that I re- 
linquish the control of this regiment which for so 

195 



many years it has been my pride and honor to com- 
mand. A regiment composed of officers and men 
who have ever performed their duties faithfully and 
fearlessly, it is small wonder you have established 
a reputation in peace and in war of which both the 
nation and the state may well be proud. There is 
no regiment in the army v/hich stands higher in the 
opinion of its superior officers than does this regi- 
ment. There is no regiment whose gallantry under 
fire has been more highly commended. Mindful of 
these facts, I cling to the organization with a pride 
and affection which time can never destroy. For my 
successor, who, like myself, has risen from the ranks, 
I bespeak your loyal, enthusiastic support. I wish 
to thank you, one and all, for the individual kindness 
and consideration which has made smooth the rough 
places and encouraged me in the discharge of my 
duties when encouragement was ofttimes needed. 
"C. McC. REEVE, Brig.-Gen." 

Note. — He is at present Colonel of the 1st Regiment, N. G. S. 
M., and if a war was declared tomorrow would be in command. As 
an evidence of his great popularity among the enlisted men of the 
13th Minnesota, we will take the case of Company B, which was 
as harmonious a company and as well ofS.cered as any other com- 
pany. Out of the 120 who originally composed the company in 
the regiment, twelve men re-enlisted in Company B, 1st Regiment, 
N. G. S. M., seven of whom were commissioned and non-commis- 
sioned ofBicers and five private soldiers. 



COL. AMES' OPENING REMARKS. 



Col. Ames' address to the regiment on assuming 
command: 

"Headquarters 13th Regt. Minn. Vols., 

"Manila, P. I., Sept. 24, 1898. 

"To the Officers and Enlisted Men of the Thirteenth 
Minnesota Volunteers: 
"Having been commissioned by his excellency, 



106 



Governor Clough, of the state of Minnesota, colonel 
of this regiment, and having been duly mustered in as 
such, I hereby assume command of the same. It is 
needless for me to say to you that our regiment had 
made a fine record, for its past speaks for itself. I 
desire the hearty support of every officer and en- 
listed man in the future, that we may add new laurels 
to those already won and still further entitle us to 
the words of praise and approbation of the people of 
the North Star state we all love so well. It is not 
always the outside or more showy evolutions which 
indicate the fine drilled and disciplined organization, 
but the attention to the little details which escape 
the eye of the citizen that makes perfect the in- 
dividual soldier and thereby a perfect whole. A regi- 
ment may be likened to a machine, each particular 
part of which has certain work to do. If any portion* 
of the same becomes rusty or worn, the effect is 
apparent at once in the work of the whole machine. 
Therefore I ask that each officer in his department, 
whether it be quartermaster, adjutant, battalion or 
company, pay particular attention to his work and 
bring it as near perfection as possible. For the en- 
listed men I have only words of praise for their brave 
and unfaltering conduct under all circumstances since 
we left home and I simply request of them that they 
strive still harder to keep the reputation they have 
already won as gentlemen as well as soldiers. On 
behalf of our regiment, I congratulate Brigadier- Gen- 
eral Reeve, our former commanding officer, on his de- 
served promotion and wish him God-speed in his new 
position. 

"FRED W. AMES, Colonel." 



197 



ROLL OF HONOR 



THIRTEENTH INFANTRY, MINNESOTA 
VOLUNTEERS. 



Major Arthur M. Diggles, Manila, P. I., May 26, 1899. 
Chief Musician Charles H. Watson, Honolulu, H. I., 

July 20, 1898. 
Private Sidney Pratt, Camp Dewey, P. I., Aug. 18, 

1898. 
Private Harry L. Currier, Manila, P. I., Sept. 19, 1898. 
Private C. E. Payson Colwell, Manila, P. I., Sept. 

24, 1898. 
Private William Flanigan, San Francisco, Cal., Sept. 

20, 1899. 
Private Timothy Enright, Manila, P. I., March 11, 

1899. 
Private Albert W. Olsen, Manila, P. I., Jan 29, 1899. 
Private Maurice P. Beaty, Bocave, P. I., April 11, 

1899. 
Private Joseph O. Daley, Manila, P. I., Oct. 5, 1899. 
Private John W. Flynt, at sea. May 14, 1899. 
Private Herbert L. Keeler, Manila, P. I., May 16, 

1899. 
Private William O. Martenson, Manila, P. I., Oct. 9, 

1898. 
Private Harry G. Watson, Cavite, P. I., Aug. 29, 

1898. 
Private Gilbert C. Perrine, Manila, P. I., Jan. 6, 1899. 
Private John S. Wood, Manila, P. I., Aug. 23, 1898. 
Sergeant Merwin M. Carleton, Manila, P. I., Dec. 18, 

1898. 
Musician Frederick Buckland, at sea, July 27, 1898. 
Private Paul M. Crosby, Cavite, P. I., Oct. 4, 1898. 
Private Fred C. Fritzon, Manila, P. I., June 26, 1899. 
Private Leslie B. Paden, Cavite, P. I., Aug. 6, 1898. 
Private Jesse J. Cole, Mololos, P. I., April 10, 1898. 



188 



Private Sidney T. Garrett, Manila, P. I., Nov. 3, 1898. 
Private Frank C. Lewis, San Rafael de Buena Vista, 

May 1, 1898. 
Private Vernon E. Taggart, Manila, P. I., May 23, 

1899. 
Private Albert E. Dennis, Cavite, P. I., Sept. 11, 1898. 
Private Chas. W. Schwartz, Manila, P. I., Aug. 31, 

1898. 
Corporal William W. Ray, San Francisco, Cal., May 

30, 1898. 
Musician Archie R. Patterson, Cingalon, Luzon, P. 

I., Aug. 13, 1898. 
Private Verne A. Barker, Manila, P. L, Feb. 25, 1899. 
Private Amasa J. Hawkins, Manila, P. L, Dec. 3, 

1898. 
Private Edward J. Sutton, Manila, P. I., March 9, 

1899. 
Private Robert L. VanEman, Manila, P. I., Feb. 20, 

1899. 
Private Paul J. Rhode, Manila, P. L, June 28, 1899. 
Private Fred W. Buckendorf, Balinag, Luzon, P. I., 

May 6, 1899. 
Private Henry Dickson, Cavite, P. I., Aug. 16, 1898. 
Private Edward Pratt, Manila, P. I., March 25, 1899. 
Private William Sullivan, Honolulu, H. L, July 17, 

1898. 
Private Frank Weirauch, Manila, P. L, Oct. 1, 1898. 
Private George H. Cootey, Manila, P. I., Oct. 4, 1898. 
Private William H. Pilgrim, Manila, P. L, June 23, 

1899. 



Wounded of the Thirteenth 



Following is a complete list from the official 
records of the war department at Washington of the 
members of the Thirteenth Minnesota wounded in 
action: 
Captain Alfred W. Bjornstad, Company H, Aug. 13, 

1898, near Manila. 

190 



First Lieut. Clarence G. Bunker, Company C, Aug. 

13, 1898, near Manila. 
Captain Oscar Seebach, Company G, Aug. 13, 1898, 

near Manila. 
Private Charles J. Ahlers, Company G, Aug. 13, 

1898, near Manila. 
Corporal Henry E. Williams, Company E, Aug. 13, 

1898, near Manila. 
Private Lewis H. Wallace, Company H, Aug. 13, 

1898, near Manila. 
Artificer Guimar Thorsell, Company H, Aug. 13, 

1898, near Manila. 
Private George F. Tenncy, Company L, Aug. 13, 

1898, near Manila. 
Private Ernest E. Rider, Company L, Aug. 13, 1898, 

near Manila. 
Private Clarence P. Rice, Company E, Aug. 13, 1898, 

near Manila. 
Private Wm. S. Moore, Company L, Aug. 13, 1893, 

near Manila. 
Private Louis Miner, Company L, Aug. 13, 1898, 

near Manila. 
Private Charles Little, Company F, Aug. 13, 1898, 

near Manila. 
Private Wm. A. Jones, Company G, Aug. 13, 1898, 

near Manila. 
Private George Kahl, Company L, Aug. 13, 1898, 

near Manila. 
Private Albert S. Hanson, Company F, Aug. 13, 1898, 

near Manila. 
Private Henry H. Tetzlaff, Company C, Aug. 13, 

1898, near Manila. 
Private Milton A. Trenham, Company D, Aug. 13, 

1898, near Manila. 
Private Frank M. Crowell, Company G, Aug. 13, 1898, 

near Manila. 
Sergeant Merwin M. Carleton, Company E, Aug. 13, 

1898, near Manila. 
Sergeant Charles Burnson, Company G, Aug. 13, 

1898, near Manila. 



300 



Private Henry E. Barrowman, Company K, Aug. 13, 

1898, near Manila. 

Private Eugene A. Harvey, Company B, April 11, 

1899, Guiguinto. 

Corporal Holden P. Guilbert, Company A, April 11, 

1899, Guiguinto. 
Sergeant Eugene Hanscom, Company A, April 11, 

1899, Guiguinto. 
Private Henry Foss, Company B, April 10, 1899, 

Guiguinto. 
Private John J. Young, Company C, April 11, 1899, 

Bocaue. 
Private Harry L. Beckjord, Company C, April 11, 

1899, Bocaue. 
Private Claude H. Still, Company C, April 11, 1899, 

Bocaue. 
Corporal Dalford A. Ryberg, Company I, April 11, 

1899, Guiguinto. 
Private Richard H. Kelly, Company L, April 11, 1899, 

Bocaue. 
Private Adam Hotchkiss, Company L, April 11, 1899, 

Bigaa. 
Corporal Charles T. De Lamere, Company C, April 

11, 1899, Bocaue. 
Corporal Robert J. Kelliher, Company E, April 12, 

1899, Santa Marie. 
Private Ira S. Towle, Company F, April 12, 1899, N. 

Guiguinto. 
Private Frank Whiplinger, Company D, April 24, 

1899, Norzagaray. 
Sergeant Frank Burlingham, Company K, April 24, 

1899, Norzagaray. 
Private A. T. Williams, Company E, April 25, 1899, 

Angat. 
Private Nicholas Hanson, Company A, April 20, 1899, 

N. Guiguinto. 
First Lieut. Charles N. Clark, Company F, April 11, 

1899, Bocaue. 
Private Albert E. Erickson, Company H, May 13, 

1899, San Miguel. 



201 



Sergeant Harry M. Howard, Company K, May 15, 

1899, Salaco. 
Private Martin E. Tew, Company F, May 17, 1899, 

San Isidro. m 

Major Arthur M. Diggles, May 8, 1899, Maasin. V 

Private James Barrett, Company H, May 4, 1899, 

Maasin. 
Private F. W. Buckendorf, Company L, May 4, 1899, 

Maasin. 

Private Robert L. Geib, Company G, Feb. 26, 1899, ■ 

N. of Caloocan, ■ 

Private P. G. Huhn, Company M, March 25, 1899, 

Mariquina road. 
Private Harry M. Glazier, Company L, March 25, 

1899, Mariquina road. 
Private James C. McGee, Company K, March 25, 

1899, Mariquina road. 
Corporal John Connelly, Company K, March 25, 

1899, Mariquina road. 
Private L. A. Porter, Company I, March 25, 1899, 

Mariquina road. 
Private Allen A. Grimes, Company I, March 25, 1899, 

Mariquina road. 
Private Fred K. Ekman, Company I, March 25, 1899, 

Mariquina road. 
Corporal Edward B. Mclnnis, Company I, March 

25, 1899, Mariquina road. 
Private Bert Parsons, Company C, March 25, 1899, 

Mariquina road. 
Private Arnold Arneson, Company C, March 25, 

1899, Mariquina road. 
Private Andrew Martinson, Company A, March 25, 

1899, Mariquina road. 
Private John F. Whalen, Company K, March 25, 

1899, Mariquina road. 
Private Andrew J. Weidle, Company H, Feb. 26, 

1899, Caloocan. 
Private Wm. C. Fitch, Company D, Feb. 11, 1899, 

Malabon. 
Private James Hartley, Company D, Feb. 11, 1899, 

Malabotu 

2oa 



Private Benjamin Ohman, Company L, Feb. 10, 1899, 

Caloocan. 
Private George W. Baker, Company G, Feb. 23, 1899, 

Tondo. 
Private Oscar Fryckman, Company M, Feb. 23, 1899, 

Tondo. 
Private E. J. Fehr, Company M, Feb. 23, 1899, Ton- 
do. 
Private H. H. Hillmann, Company D, Feb. 22, 1899, 

Binondo. 
Private John Hartfield, Company D, Feb. 22, 1899, 

Binondo. 
Private M. G. Grinnell, Company D, Feb. 22, 1899, 

Binondo. 
Private Ira B. Smith, Company C, Feb. 23, 1899, 

Tondo. 
Private George S. Woodring, Company C, Feb. 23, 

1899, Tondo. 
Private Thomas F. Galvin, Company C, Feb. 23, 

1899, Tondo. 
Sergeant George K. Sheppard, Company C, Feb. 23, 

1899, Tondo. 
Captain N. C. Robinson, Company C, Feb. 23, 1899, 

Tondo. 
Private Louis Ulmer, Company L, Aug. 13, 1898, 

Manila. 
Sergeant Price, Company E, Nov. 18, 1898, Binondo. 
Corporal Wm. Montgomery, Company E, Nov. 18, 

1898, Binondo. 

Private Fred Paddleford, Company G, Feb. 5, 1899, 

Manila. 
Private Charles J. Meggison, Company B, April 11, 

1899, Guiguinto. 

Private Charles F. Brackett, Company B, April 11, 

1899, Guiguinto. 
Private John A. Heenan, Company B, April 12, 1899, 

Guiguinto. 
Private Wm. J. Obiele, Company B, April 11, 1899, 

Guiguinto. 
Corporal W. A. Ryberg, Company I, April 10, 1899, 

Bocaue. 

208 



Missing of the Thirteenth 



Pvt. Joseph Walsh, Caloocan, P. I., June 9, 1899. 
Pvt. Wm. J. Worthington, Marilon, P. I., June 7, 1899. 
Pvt. Robert Burns, Honolulu, H. I., Aug. 10, 1898. 



Eighth Army Corps Poetry 



The following poetry, written by Eighth Army 
Corps soldiers, expresses the sentiments of the time 
very vividly. 

THE VOLUNTEER. 
Let poets sing the many joys all caused by Cupid's 

dart. 
Let those who may declare the praise of Science and 

of Art, 
Of all the many pleasures great which fill this earthly 

Sphere, 
It was the acme of my bliss to be a Volunteer. 

"To arms! To arms!" the country cries, and quick he 

heeds the call! 
To rally round the Stars and Stripes he hies him 

great and small. 
To plant the flag on foreign shores, and travel o'er 

the sea. 
While others stay behind and yell: "Just give them 

hell for me." 

He's off, and o'er the briny deep the stately vessel 
spins, 

Gone, alas, his noble dreams, and now the fun be- 
gins, 

So grave and serious he finds the charge he has to 
keep, 

204 



That all else that his system holds he empties in the 
deep. 

For many weary days and nights he travels o'er the 

brine, 
By day, he's cooped up on the deck, scorched by the 

bright sunshine, 
By night, within his little bunk he's forced to lie and 

smother, 
Still patiently he grits his teeth and thinks of home 

and mother! 

'Tis now he finds how sweet it is to live a soldier's 
life. 

He's wakened up at early dawn by the bugle, drum 
and fife. 

He nimbly runs upstairs on deck, expecting to re- 
main, 

But scarce a moment passes ere he's ordered down 
again ! 

He finds that military life, alas, is far from sweet. 
His only joy is when he dreams he gets enough to 

eat. 
And if a storm should strike the ship, or some slight 

wind should swerve her, 
He madly rushes round the deck and grabs a life 

preserver! 

On land the story is the same, no rest his soul can 

gain; 
He celebrates the wee small hours by fighting in the 

rain. 
By day, wrapped up in flannel suits, he sits around 

and sweats. 
And makes out requisitions for light clothes he never 

gets! 



205 



So lives our noble Volunteer! and when the war is 

o'er 
And once again he sets his feet on old Columbia's 

shore, 
He finds he's habit's creature, he has lost all sense 

and tact. 
And shocks his friends by showing that he don't 

know how to act. 

If to assuage his thirst he now should wander to the 

bar 
He practices a little trick he's brought back from 

afar: 
He drinks his beer, then at the man he slowly winks 

his eye; 
The while he seeks the door and says "Denero" bye 

and bye! 

And gone are his domestic tastes; his bed he seeks 

no more. 
He breaks his poor old mother's heart by sleeping on 

the floor; 
He calls his sister "Moocher"; his manners are the 

worst. 
And when he hears the dinner bell he yells: "What 

squad eats first?" 

Oh, all may sing the glory great of being a Volun- 
teer! 

But when again the Country calls, we'll all be deaf, 
I fear; 

We'll climb upon the street car roof, the suckers for 
to see. 

And as they pass we, too, will yell: "Just give them 
hell for me!" 

O. H. FERNBACK, 
1st California, U. S. V. 



206 



IN MANILA, 1998. 



Through the streets of old Manila 

Aimlessly one day I strode, 
Till I bumped against a figure 

Standing silent in the road. 
Such an odd, ungainly figure 

That I quickly staggered back. 
Thinking that it was a spirit 

And I'd run across its track. 

On his head he wore a helmet, 

Rather doubtful as to hue. 
On his legs some battered leggings. 

And his coat was once a blue. 
On his shoulder was a musket. 

Rusted with the rust of years 
Like himself, this apparition 

Greatly served to rouse my fears. 

"What the dickens are you?" asked I, 

And my breath came quick and short. 
He, then, out of force of habit, 

Brought his rifle to the port. 
"You remember, then," he answered, 

"Just a hundred years ago 
There was trouble with the Spaniards, 

'Twas about the Maine, you know. 

Then I left home for Manila 
With more U. S. Volunteers; 

We were numbered several thousand. 
All enlisted for two years. 

Oh! the others? They are sleeping 
In the ancient churchyard here, 

207 



Far from home and loving kindred 
And their native country dear. 

Some were stricken by diseases, 

Victims of the fever's rage; 
Some were smitten by the smallpox, 

Others died of ripe old age; 
I'm the last of all those thousands, 

Through this place I still must roam, 
Waiting for expected orders, 

Welcome orders to go home!*' 

W. O'CONNELL McGEEHAN, 
1st California, U. S. V. 



THE ARMY. 



I went into a recruiting place. 

The officer in charge, looked me square in the 

face ; 
He said, "Young man, do you want to enlist? 
If so, please take off your pants, coat and vest." 
A quack army doctor examined my frame, 
He pounded my chest until I was lame; 
Now, if I get a chance I will cave in his brain. 
And he won't prescribe pills any more. 

Chorus — 
In the Army, the Army, 
They call you a rookey and feed you on soupey. 
In the Army, the Army. 

We have pork and beans three times a day. 
My friends, I tell you I'd rather eat hay; 
We drill for four hours every day. 
It's too much drilling for such small pay; 



208 



You leave your tent open and when you get back 
You're minus a blanket and haversack, 
You can call me a lobster when I get back, 
If I go in the army again. 

Chorus — 

In the Army, the Army, 
If you miss reveille from oversleep. 
They will give you two days as kitchen police, 

In the Army, the Army. 

On the first of May, in Manila Bay, 

Dewey and Monte jo played philopena, they say; 

It was yes or no for a present grand, 

Dewey he lost, paid his debt like a man; 

The present he gave Montejo was shot and shell, 

He blew the Don's fleet straight to h — 1; 

If the Germans get gay, he will whip them as 

well. 
Or any other nation on earth. 

Chorus — 
Manila, Manila, 
Where the scrappy Fourteenth is always on 

hand, 
They will fight until they lose their last man, 
In Manila, Manila. 

Now that we're here, we must obey, 

What "Shoulder Straps" and "Non-Coms" say; 

But such is life, so what can you do? 

They know that they have the bulge on you. 

Just wait till we're free from the government 

yoke, 
We can tell them to go where there's plenty of 

smoke, 

(14) 20d 



It's then well get even, and that's no joke, 
Their stripes will not bother us then. 

Chorus — 

In America, America, 
Where everybody has a fair show, 
You don't need a pass to go to and fro. 

In America, America. 

EDWARD THORMANN, 
14th Infantry, U. S. A. 



ON THE DECKS OF THE PEKING. 



Round our floating palace dwelling wash the wild 
waves. 

Above us, exist air and ozone free. 
But that is all we get upon the Peking, 

And we've yet a month to spend upon the sea. 
When on the deck we sit and think of 'Frisco, 

Of the happy homes we all have left behind. 
Within our breasts arise the sorest feelings. 

For we're treated worse than felons low confined. 

Chorus — 
O, it may be well to shout of volunteering, 

And go marching down the street to drum and fife. 
But this death by slow starvation's quite annoying. 

And we'd enlist again — not on your life! 

On the spar deck we assembled every morning. 
After spending all the night in Turkish bath; 

To each man they give a biscuit and some coffee, 
That would make a starving dog rise up in wrath. 

The Majors and the Captains live on dainties. 
Served by flunkies in the dining hall below, 

While we poor suckers live on hog and glory, — 

aio 



Those who grabbed their guns have got to swallow 
crow. 

We thought when we our good right hand uplifted, 

And swore to take the treacherous Dons to task, 
That to each man at least there would be given 

Enough to eat — that's all we want and ask; 
We would not kick if grub could not be gotten, 

But it's everywhere around us boxed up tight. 
And it makes us sore to live on what we're given, 

With so much to eat aboard and within sight. 

E. B. LENHART, 
J 1st California, U. S. V. 



THE AMERICAN SOLDIER. 



On Sept. 16, 1898, was printed on the "El Espana" 
press at Calle San Juan De Letra, No. 1, Vol. 1, of 
the "American Soldier," the first American newspa- 
per printed in the Philippines. The editor wrote out 
the articles and the native typesetters followed them 
letter by letter, as they could not spell the words. 
G. A. Smith, Company C, Thirteenth Minnesota, was 
the first editor, and had associated with him L. D. 
Bruckhart, of Company M, and a soldier from the 
Utah Artillery. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE MANILA 
"FREEDOM." 



Printed Feb. 18, 1899. 
We have contended from the outset that the Thir- 
teenth Minnesota Regiment is as much responsible 
for the victories of the Eighth Army Corps as any 
other regiment in the field. To the lot of the men 



%\\ 



who make up this regiment has fallen the task of 
protecting the non-combatants here in the city. 
While to the shallow-brained, it may not seem that 
their post is as dangerous, and that consequently 
their chances of achieving glory are not as great as 
would be, had they been sent to the front and some 
other organization been given the work of guarding 
Manila; on the contrary, their post is not only a 
dangerous one; it is one that requires a great deal 
of intelligent courage to successfully hold, and is 
second to none in importance. 

Recent developments have demonstrated how im- 
portant a post theirs is, and had they not remained 
true to the responsibilities devolving upon them, 
these quiet streets would have, ere this, been the 
scene of most bloody and terrible work, in which the 
weak and defenseless would have been the main suf- 
ferers. 

Many of our Minnesota friends, being imbued 
with that spirit of bravery and love of country that 
has characterized the American soldier from the 
start, have lost sight of their own very responsible 
work here in the city, and have gone, and, in a num- 
ber of cases without leave, to the front, to lend a 
helping hand there. This, of course, was a mistake, 
but one that reflects a great deal of credit and no 
dishonor upon them. It is no light thing for a sol- 
dier of "Old Glory" to remain in the city where, on 
the surface, everything seems quiet, and hear the rat- 
tle of rifles and the boom of guns in the distance, 
and know that brave comrades are fighting and dy- 
ing in the same cause he represents; and as we have 
said before, it requires a cool-headed, intelligent 
courage, such as the Minnesotas possess, to success- 
fully hold such a post. 



919 



SAN FRANCISCO CALL'S REMARKS. 



The San Francisco Call said: 

"A well merited tribute to the good discipline of 
the regiment was its selection for provost duty in the 
city of Manila when the attitude of the Filipinos be- 
gan to indicate trouble. * * * They were em- 
ployed on that duty under direction of Gen. Hughes 
when the outbreak came on the night of February 
4, and in the trying scenes of the three days and 
nights that followed proved themselves tactful, vigi- 
lant and brave." 



HONOLULU BULLETIN'S REMARKS. 



Writing about the drills the boys gave at Hono- 
lulu, the "Honolulu Bulletin" said: 

"The Minnesotas' battalion and regimental evolu- 
tions were a revelation, and will doubtless serve as 
a valuable object lesson to the National Guard of 
Honolulu, whose officers were present." 



SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE'S REMARKS. 



From the San Francisco Chronicle concerning the 
Minnesota regiment: 

"Once more have the watchers at Point Reyes 
espied in the fog-dimmed ocean waste a solitary 
ship, which, pounding towards the shore, has set 
her story at the masthead — a transport pennant, that 
tells of mortal conflict in another land. Once again 
the strong-lunged sirens along the water front have 
raised their shrill voices in welcome; once more have 
the puffing tugs passed out to greet the storm-tossed 
guesty and soon again the streets of San Francisco 
will echo with the tread of marching hosts, moving 



2tB 



this time in their last camping ground. And so, once 
again, it is a story of the beginning of the end. 

"At 6 o'clock last night the United States army 
transport Sheridan, from Manila via Nagasaki and 
Yokohama, and bearing the South Dakota and Min- 
nesota troops came up the bay and anchored off 
Angel island. * * * gu^ the part which the Thir- 
teenth Minnesota took in the early engagements 
about Manila is both well known and deeply im- 
pressed upon the memory of every American. The 
deeds of this valiant regiment are destined to live 
after it. 

"Tried by fire and subjected to the countless hard- 
ships which the peculiar climatic conditions of the 
islands bring to those from a cooler country, the 
Minnesota troops served nobly and well and made a 
splendid record among the actively engaged regi- 
ments. On numerous occasions the brunt of battle 
fell upon them, and with sturdy determination they 
fought until they won the highest praise of those 
in command, and became a terror to the hostile na- 
tives." 



A PORTLAND REPORT. 



SAME AS OUR OWN. 
Hearty Welcome to Thirteenth Minnesota. — Port- 
land Makes a Holiday of It. 
Enthusiastic Greeting at the Union Station, Along 
Line of March and at the Armory. 
It was like when "our boys" came home yesterday, 
and it was "our" boys, for Portland takes as much 
pride in the achievements of the gallant Thirteenth 
Minnesota as can any people, save possibly the home 
friends. If there was a heart in the city that did not 



314 



thrill and throb with renewed patriotism as the stal- 
wart sons of the far northern state marched along 
the streets, it is yet to be heard from. Minnesotans 
were wildly received, cordially entertained, com- 
fortably fed. The city of Portland was theirs. 
Mayor Storey told them they could have anything 
here— except the Red Cross Society. That is a Port- 
land institution that cannot be parted with. It is 
feared that the mayor, in his prodigality, has given 
away a thousand hearts, with as many fair owners, 
for those big Minnesota soldiers are fine-looking fel- 
lows, and as affable as they are valiant. 

"Fourth of July," "Just like a holiday," "People 
think as much of them as their own boys," and nu- 
merous other expressions were common. A great 
throng was out to greet the soldiers, and how they 
cheered and clapped! The demonstration began as 
soon as the three sections of the train entered the 
East Side. It swelled into a tumult when they 
rolled into the depot, where there was a long line of 
the Second Oregon boys to greet the visitors. It 
was a hubbub and roar when the 1,000 Minnesotans 
gathered about the fine spread of the Red Cross in 
the Armory, where they were waited upon by a great 
throng of fair women and willing men. 

At Union Station. 

Before 11:40, the hour for assembly, groups began 
to saunter in and around, with an expectant look on 
their faces. One might have asked them if they 
were going to inherit a fortune within the next few 
hours, they looked so pleased. Then came quite a 
number of men and women wearing those red badges 
with the word "Minne«ota" on them. They were 
restless, happy and eager for something. Some 
boys in khaki uniforms came next, who talked 



215 



about Minnesota fighters and Tondo and Marilao, 
Santa Maria, Norzagaray, Angat, Maasin and other 
peculiar places. By 1 o'clock the crowd was very 
large, and a half hour later every place around the 
depot was filled. Even the windows upstairs had 
occupants. Bennett's band was out in force. By 
1 :30, this crowd, mixed as it was, was at fever heat. 
They had watched the khaki uniformed boys line up, 
respond to stirring bugle calls, joke about things 
that happened during the war, and this crowd seemed 
to have been inoculated with some sort of spirit. 

When the train with Minnesota boys came in, sol- 
diers on the cowcatcher, engine, cab, coaches and 
platform, that crowd simply forgot itself. They 
just reached into the air with hats, handkerchiefs 
and canes, and yelled. 




LEMr'07 



WITH ^^* THE 
THIRTEENTH 
MINNESOTA 

BY JOHN BOW© 





e 





^ 







;^^ Deacldified using the Bookkeeper process. 

'>>. Neutralizing agent: IVIagnesium Oxide 

' o ^ '- Treatment Date: April 2003 

r^ ^<^' ^ ^^^^^- P»'®servationTechnologies 

■^ <<> o %/^^^^ * 'EWORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

"^ ^Vf. . w/ «^ \k -^^ 1 ■> 1 Thomson Park Drive 

Cranberry Township, PA 16066 



.V « B 



(724)779-2111 






'V/'^-^ 
A^^' "^r.. 
















■>>- 



^ '%_, 






.-sr\-\Av_, 



